01:07 PM EDT, 08/29/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Meta Platforms' ( META ) artificial intelligence unit is seeing some recent hires exit after brief tenures while long-standing employees also announce they are leaving the company, news outlets reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT, also threatened to quit and even signed paperwork to return to OpenAI just days after joining Meta, according to the Financial Times. Zhao was then designated as Meta's new chief AI scientist, the report added.

Ethan Knight, who was part of the TBD Lab, left less than a month after joining the company, FT and The Verge reported. Two other recent hires who purportedly left TBD Lab, Avi Verma and Rishabh Agarwal, never started, The Verge said, citing Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold.

Meanwhile, long-time Meta employees Chaya Nayak and Loredana Crisan announced they are leaving, according to FT. Nayak and another employee Rohan Varma were not part of TBD Lab but were with the full Superintelligence unit, The Verge said.

Meta is considering potential cuts to its AI team and has temporarily paused hiring across all Meta Superintelligence Labs teams, except for roles deemed business-critical, according to a memo shared with managers last week and seen by the Financial Times. The move "will allow leadership to thoughtfully plan our 2026 headcount growth as we work through our strategy," the memo added.

Meta didn't immediately reply to MT Newswires' request for comment.

Price: 740.99, Change: -10.12, Percent Change: -1.35