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Reid Hoffman’s New Start-Up Nabs AI Experts From Google, Meta

Reid Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn and former PayPal executive, has launched Inflection AI — a company intent on making human-computer communication easier. DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman has joined Hoffmann as his founding partner, bringing with him years of experience developing AI technology. But to fortify Inflection’s foundation, Hoffmann and company have apparently poached several AI masters from Meta and Google, according to CNBC.

Heinrich Kuttler, a Research Engineering Manager with Meta AI, and Joe Fenton, a Senior Product Manager for Google, have both left their positions to join Inflection as part of its founding team. Fenton and Kuttler also previously worked at DeepMind under Suleyman, which may explain their motivation to join the start-up on the ground floor. The two also boast remarkable experience both professionally and academically.

Both Google and Meta have lost high-profile talent since 2021, including product and engineering managers. Several Meta leaders, such as Deborah Liu and Hugo Barra, exited the company to take on chief executive officer roles with other companies (Ancestry.com and Covid-19 startup Detect, respectively). Google also lost several leadership members from its EMEA practice.