OpenAI Hires Former Meta Executive to Lead Strategic Initiatives

OpenAI Taps Ex-Meta Exec to Lead Strategic Initiatives

Kofman will report to OpenAI tech chief Mira Murati, with an initial focus on preparedness and safety, Bloomberg News reported Friday (Aug. 23), citing a company spokesperson. She worked for Meta for five years, most recently as a senior director of product management for generative artificial intelligence (AI), per her profile on LinkedIn. The Bloomberg report noted that AI startups like OpenAI have been increasingly recruiting executives from larger tech firms -- especially social media platforms -- as they aim to compete with companies like Meta and Google. Another OpenAI co-founder, Greg Brockman, announced earlier this month he was taking a sabbatical for the rest of 2024. "First time to relax since co-founding OpenAI 9 years ago," he wrote in a post on X. "The mission is far from complete; we still have a safe AGI to build." AGI is a reference to "artificial general intelligence," an as-yet-unrealized version of AI that can think and reason at the level of humans. Meanwhile, OpenAI last week debuted an update to its AI capabilities, allowing developers to now fine-tune GPT-4o, the company's most advanced language model, to meet specific business needs. This feature, long asked for by the tech sector, paves the way for customized AI applications across various industries. Fine-tuning is a process that enables developers to customize a pretrained AI model for specific tasks. OpenAI explains, "Developers can now fine-tune GPT-4o with custom datasets to get higher performance at a lower cost for their specific use cases. Fine-tuning enables the model to customize the structure and tone of responses or to follow complex domain-specific instructions." As PYMNTS noted, fine-tuning is critical for commerce because it lets businesses create AI tools tailored to their needs, enhancing customer service, streamlining operations, and promoting innovation. "For example, a retail company could fine-tune GPT-4o to understand product descriptions and customer inquiries better," the report said. "At the same time, a financial firm might customize it to analyze market trends and generate reports."

OpenAI hires former Meta executive Irina Kofman to head strategic initiatives

Kofman, who recently started at the artificial intelligence startup, is reporting directly to OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and will focus on safety and preparedness initially, said a company spokesperson. Kofman spent five years at Meta, where she was most recently a senior director of product management for generative AI, according to her LinkedIn. Also Read: Publications sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, but some are now partnering up with it Meta declined to comment on Kofman's departure. The owner of Facebook and Instagram has invested heavily in AI, seeking to improve its advertising business, for example, by using algorithms to better determine when and where to show ads and providing marketers with generative AI tools to help them create more effective campaigns. AI startups such as OpenAI are increasingly hiring business leaders with experience at the larger tech companies, particularly in social media, as they scale up and compete with the likes of Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Meta. Also Read: 78% of India's delivery gig workers earn less than 2.5 lakh a year: Report In June, OpenAI hired former Instagram and Twitter executive Kevin Weil as chief product officer and former Nextdoor Chief Executive Officer Sarah Friar as chief financial officer. The ChatGPT-maker's rival, Anthropic, also has recruited big tech talent recently, hiring former Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger as chief product officer in May. While OpenAI is adding to its leadership team, it has also faced some high-profile staff departures, including former co-founder John Schulman and prominent researcher Jan Leike, who both moved to Anthropic.

ChatGPT-Maker OpenAI Taps Former Meta Exec To Drive Strategy Amid Growing Exodus - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

After a series of high-profile employees left ChatGPT-parent OpenAI, the startup has onboarded former Meta Platforms, Inc. META executive, Irina Kofman. What Happened: Kofman will be reporting directly to OpenAI CTO Mira Murati and will initially focus on safety and preparedness, reported Bloomberg, citing a company spokesperson. According to Kofman's LinkedIn page, she has served as a senior director of product management for generative AI at Meta for five years. See Also: Take-Two Interactive Software Shares Are Trading Higher Today: What's Going On Earlier in June, OpenAI also added former Instagram and Twitter (now rebranded as X) executive Kevin Weil as chief product officer. The startup has also onboarded former Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar as chief financial officer, the report noted. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It Matters: Microsoft Corp.-backed MSFT OpenAI has also seen some notable exits. This includes one of OpenAI's co-founders John Schulman and researcher Jan Leike, who have joined Anthropic, a rival to OpenAI. In May, OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever also announced his departure from the company after nearly a decade. In August, another OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman also announced that he is taking a sabbatical. The AI startup has also been involved in a talent war with other tech companies. In April, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also said that OpenAI has been aggressively poaching engineers from his EV giant. Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Justin Bieber, Eminem, Drake, And Linus Tech Tips Had Their YouTube Accounts Hacked: The Streaming Giant Now Has A Solution - An AI Chatbot Photo courtesy: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs