"Talent War For AI Is Craziest": Elon Musk Hikes Workers' Salaries Amid Poaching War With OpenAI

Elon Musk is increasing salaries for Tesla's AI engineers, claiming aggressive poaching by rival AI companies, particularly OpenAI led by Sam Altman. This comes after Tesla engineer Ethan Knight left for Musk's new startup, xAI, according to The Fortune.

Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, has a strained relationship with Altman and is suing him over alleged contract breaches. Tesla's autopilot team seems to be a prime target, with Knight being the fourth engineer to leave for Musk's ventures, as per the news outlet.

Ethan is very talented, but “vision chief” would be overstating things.

There are over 200 excellent engineers in the Tesla AI/Autonomy team. Tesla's pace of progress with autonomy is accelerating.

The talent war for AI is the craziest talent war I've ever seen!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2024

This raises concerns for Tesla investors. Musk's focus on less traditional methods, like moving staff between companies, worries them as Tesla's core car business slows. Additionally, a recent court case revealed limited oversight by Tesla's board regarding such staff reassignments.

Some shareholders are questioning the ethics of Musk using Tesla resources for his personal ventures, especially considering his threats to develop AI outside Tesla if his pay package isn't approved.

However, Musk might have another motive. By portraying himself as the target of poaching, he elevates xAI's reputation. If OpenAI, a leader in AI, wants his staff, then xAI must be doing something right.

Ironically, Musk previously downplayed comparisons between companies like OpenAI working on generative AI and Tesla's "real-world AI." He argues that the challenges of self-driving cars far outweigh processing text.

While Tesla boasts over 200 AI and autonomy engineers, xAI seems to be lagging behind OpenAI. Poaching familiar talent from Tesla could be a strategic move to close this gap.

Elon Musk calls the current AI talent war "the craziest" he's seen, especially considering his own companies are competing for the same resources.