SAN FRANCISCO, July 1: In another high-profile departure from OpenAI, Indian-origin researcher Trapit Bansal has joined Meta, marking a significant shift in the competitive landscape of artificial intelligence talent.

Bansal, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, had been with OpenAI since 2022. During his tenure at the San Francisco-based AI powerhouse, he was instrumental in shaping the company’s reinforcement learning research initiatives, working closely with co-founder Ilya Sutskever. He also played a pivotal role in the development of OpenAI’s first reasoning model, known as o1.

In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter), Bansal announced his transition to Meta, stating, “Thrilled to be joining @Meta! Superintelligence is now in sight ????.” Though his exact position at Meta has not been disclosed, the post indicates he may be joining Meta’s recently established Superintelligence Labs.

The formation of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) was revealed earlier this week in an internal memo by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The new division is expected to oversee the company’s most advanced AI research. It will be led by Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang, with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman serving as co-lead. According to Bloomberg, Zuckerberg described Wang as “the most impressive founder of his generation.”

Bansal’s departure comes shortly after another key OpenAI researcher, Lucas Beyer, also moved to join Meta’s superintelligence team, highlighting an intensifying competition for AI talent among tech giants.

Before joining OpenAI full-time, Bansal held research internships at Microsoft and Google. His academic credentials include a Master of Science in Mathematics and Statistics from IIT Kanpur, in addition to his research work at IISc.

As Meta ramps up its efforts to develop cutting-edge AI systems, the addition of top researchers like Bansal underscores the company’s growing ambitions in the field of artificial superintelligence.