OpenAI hires ex-Meta/AI researcher Ruoming Pang in talent war

Ruoming Pang has left Meta to join OpenAI. The Information reported the move yesterday (Feb. 25). Pang was recruited by Meta last year with a pay package reportedly worth more than $200 million. He joined Meta Superintelligence Labs in July after being poached from Apple. Pang remained at Meta for only seven months. He earned his undergraduate degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Pang holds a master's in computer science from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2006. He originally is from Shanghai. At Apple he spent nearly four years as a senior distinguished engineer leading development of foundation models behind Apple Intelligence. Before Apple, Pang spent roughly 15 years at Google DeepMind as a principal software engineer. There he worked on large-scale machine learning systems, including privacy-preserving technologies and speech recognition. OpenAI has not disclosed his title, scope of responsibilities or compensation terms. The company reportedly courted him for months. OpenAI employees earn roughly $1.5 million in annual salary and equity, according to the Wall Street Journal. Pang is widely expected to continue working on foundation models and superintelligence research.