Top talent is leaving Meta's AI lab as the company struggles to keep up with its rivals.

• At least four prominent members of Meta AI have departed in recent months.
• Karl Hermann, an AI entrepreneur who previously worked at rival lab DeepMind, stated that Meta's London office collapsed and most of their top researchers were lost in the past six weeks.
• Yann LeCun, Meta's Chief AI Scientist and co-founder of the company's AI lab, stated via email to CNBC that "people's interests change and they move on."

Some of Facebook's top artificial intelligence scientists have left the company as it shifts its focus to the metaverse.

In recent months, at least four prominent members of Meta AI have left the company, according to sources and LinkedIn analysis. These scientists have published numerous academic papers in prestigious journals and made significant advancements that Meta has utilized to improve Facebook and Instagram.

Karl Hermann, a former AI entrepreneur who worked at DeepMind, told CNBC on Monday that Meta's London AI lab had experienced a significant number of exits. He added that the true figure could be closer to half a dozen, and that the company's London office had recently collapsed, resulting in the loss of most of its top researchers in just six weeks.

Neil Lawrence, a professor of machine learning at the University of Cambridge, stated to CNBC that he was not taken aback by Mark Zuckerberg's shift towards Meta. He added that Zuckerberg had never invested adequately in London in the past.

Edward Grefenstette, a research scientist who led Meta's efforts on reinforcement learning, left the company in February. He declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.

One of Meta AI's research engineering managers, Heinrich Kuttler, recently left to join Inflection AI, a start-up founded by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman. Kuttler had been with Meta since January 2019, having previously spent over two years at DeepMind.

Ahmad Beirami, a research scientist, left Meta in January and joined Google in the same position.

In December of last year, Douwe Kiela left his position as a research scientist at Meta after spending five years with the company. He is now the head of research at AI start-up Hugging Face.

The trio of Kuttler, Beirami, and Kiela did not promptly reply to a CNBC inquiry for comment.

Several Meta AI staff are expected to depart in the upcoming weeks, according to a source who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter. The reason for their departure is not specified.

According to the source, some individuals choose to switch to a larger research facility in the hope that it will enhance their career prospects or research goals.

Some people leave because they have better opportunities for growth or hiring potential elsewhere, while others are interested in starting their own company or working with a smaller organization. While Meta's stock decline may have played a role, it's not the primary reason for leaving.

Yann LeCun, Meta's Chief AI Scientist and co-founder of the company's AI lab, stated via email to CNBC that "people's interests change and they move on."

Ed Grefenstette is joining an unnamed start-up, and I'm sad he has left. People's interests often shift, and I'm not sure what Heinrich's plans are. There is no underlying common cause for this change, and there has been no detectable migration from FAIR (Facebook AI Research) London or other sites.

Several individuals from DeepMind and other AI research institutions have recently joined Meta.

U.S. tech giants have been investing heavily in AI with most of the money going toward hiring top talent from leading universities in both the U.K. and the U.S.

Several big exits have occurred at Meta AI, including the departure of Rob Fergus, the co-founder of Meta's AI lab, who left Meta in 2020 to join DeepMind and establish a DeepMind team in New York.

In August, Marc'Aurelio Ranzato left his position as a research scientist manager at Meta AI and joined DeepMind.

In 2021, there were several significant exits from Meta's AI lab, in addition to other major exits across the company.