Musk pledges pay increase for AI engineers amid heated talent war
3 Min Read
Elon Musk says he would offer pay increases to AI engineers as the talent war escalated amid surging demand for AI workers.
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Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk looks on, during an in-conversation event with Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Lancaster House in London, November 2, 2023 (AP)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Thursday plans to elevate the compensation packages of Tesla's artificial intelligence (AI) engineers in response to heightened competition in the tech talent landscape.
Musk described the current state of affairs in a post on X as "the craziest talent war" he has ever witnessed, underscoring the intense battle for skilled AI professionals. Tesla, he revealed, is ramping up compensation for its AI engineering team, contingent upon achieving specific progress milestones.
Musk's declaration comes amidst concerns over Tesla losing valuable talent to rival firms like OpenAI, a pioneering startup he co-founded but has since experienced discord with its founders. Musk expressed frustration over OpenAI's aggressive recruitment tactics, citing substantial compensation offers aimed at luring Tesla engineers.
Responding to inquiries on X regarding Tesla's response to competitive offers, Musk then went on a campaign to combat talent poaching by offering higher payment.
The talent war intensified with reports of Ethan Knight, a notable engineer at Tesla, opting to join xAI, another venture spearheaded by Musk after he was approached by OpenAI. Musk highlighted the challenges posed by OpenAI's success in attracting Tesla engineers with enticing compensation packages.
However, Musk's comments also drew attention to the dynamics within Tesla's workforce, as he downplayed Knight's significance within the AI/Autonomy team.
Industry reports from 2023 revealed OpenAI's status as a top payer for new PhD-holding graduates, offering an annual salary of $865,000, with Tesla ranking fourth at $780,000.
The rift between Musk and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and once a close associate, has deepened over the years, particularly after Altman's refusal to support Musk's leadership bid in the company's formative years. Tensions escalated as OpenAI gained prominence with its GPT chatbot and forged alliances, including a partnership with Microsoft.
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Earlier this year, Musk signaled his intent to pursue legal action against OpenAI and Altman for alleged breaches of prior commitments. OpenAI, in response, challenged Musk's claims and raised concerns over the potential exploitation of proprietary information during legal proceedings.
OpenAI released its GPT-4 language model in March 2023, but Musk claimed that "GPT-4’s internal design was kept and remains a complete secret except to OpenAI—and, on information and belief, Microsoft."
Musk then opted to open-source xAI's chatbot Grok in response to several decisions taken by OpenAI that he disagreed with.
