Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta has seen many high-profile departures in the last few weeks, and joining the list now is an Indian-origin techie named Chaya Nayak, who has left the tech giant for rival OpenAI. Notably, just a few months ago, Zuckerberg had set up the company’s new Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) by poaching top talent from other AI companies, including over 10 employees from OpenAI, if reports are to be believed.
Who is Chaya Nayak?
As per Nayak’s LinkedIn profile, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Global Studies (Security, Peace Studies, Spanish) from the University of Wisconsin and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of California.
She joined Meta as ‘Head of Data for Good’ in October 2016 and was later elevated to the position of Product Manager & Head of Research & Transparency in June 2018. In her latest stint at the company, Nayak assumed the role of Director of Product Management, Generative AI.
“I remember my first weeks at Facebook like they were yesterday. I joined to help jumpstart Data for Good, an effort to show how data and AI/ML could benefit the world. What started as a bold experiment grew into the foundation of my career,” Nayak wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
The LinkedIn post also details that Nayak built products that supported communities in crisis with Disaster Maps. She also established the Facebook Open Research and Transparency Team to work on problems like data cleaning, differential privacy, and clean rooms.
Nayak states that she played a crucial role in critical global moments like the US 2020 elections, where she co-authored several papers in leading journals, including Science, on Meta’s impact on democracy.
“Along the way, I grew as a leader. I learned confidence, boldness to chase audacious ideas, and resilience when things didn’t go as planned. Most importantly, I built a network of colleagues and friends who shaped me and inspired me every step of the way,” she added.
As Meta worked to put its focus on building its own generative AI chatbot, Nayak worked on the last three generations of Llama and Meta AI in order to solve “hard problems at incredible speed, and imagining what the next wave of AI could mean for society.”
At OpenAI, Nayak will lead special initiatives with Irina Kofman, another former Meta employee who jumped to the ChatGPT maker last year.
“It feels like the perfect next chapter: to take everything I’ve learned, and pour it into work that will help define what comes next for technology and society,” Nayak wrote about her move to OpenAI.
Meta sees many high-profile departures
The exit by Nayak comes at a time when Meta has reportedly witnessed a number of high-profile departures, including another Indian-origin researcher Rishabh Agarwal, machine learning scientist Ethan Knight, former OpenAI researcher Avi Verma, and another long-term employee named Loredana Crisan.
In fact, Meta’s current Chief Scientist and ChatGPT co-creator Shengjia Zhao also wanted to leave the company days after joining and had even filed his employment paperwork with OpenAI before he was given the coveted position, according to a Financial Times report.
