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‘Perfect next chapter’: After a decade at Meta shaping AI innovation, Chaya Nayak will now lead Special Initiatives at OpenAI under Irina Kofman
Chaya Nayak, one of Meta’s prominent AI leaders, has announced her departure from the tech giant to join Sam Altman-led OpenAI. In a heartfelt LinkedIn post, Nayak described the move as the “perfect next chapter” in her career, reportedstoryboard18.com.
During her decade-long tenure, Nayak spearheaded multiple global projects, from building Disaster Maps for crisis-hit communities to leading the Facebook Open Research and Transparency (FORT) team, where she worked on responsible AI research frameworks including differential privacy and data clean rooms. She was also deeply involved in responses during the 2020 U.S. elections and research collaborations on democracy.
Nayak, who began her journey at Meta with the Data for Good initiative, played a key role in projects that used AI for social good and later helped shape Meta’s Generative AI strategy
In recent years, Nayak drove Meta’s Generative AI vision, working across three generations of its large language models, including Llama and Meta AI. Reflecting on the experience, she wrote: “In the last 2.5 years, I worked on GenAI – solving hard problems at incredible speed, and imagining what the next wave of AI could mean for society.”
Announcing her new role, Nayak revealed she is set to join OpenAI’s Special Initiatives team, working directly with Irina Kofman. “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,” she said.
Her exit adds to a growing wave of AI talent departures from Meta. According to Wired, at least three researchers from Meta’s SuperIntelligence Labs (MSL) – Rishabh Agarwal, Avi Verma, and Ethan Knight – have also resigned recently. Both Verma and Knight have rejoined OpenAI, while Agarwal left in search of “a different kind of risk” despite a lucrative seven-figure salary.
