ANKARA

After months of recruitment, US-based tech giant Meta has stopped hiring for its artificial intelligence (AI) division, having gathered over 50 researchers and engineers from OpenAI, Google, Apple, and other companies.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally oversaw the hiring process, during which some researchers were offered more than $100 million (yearly) to work for the company, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on Thursday.

The hiring freeze took effect last week, and it also prevents employees in the AI division from moving between teams.

Company officials said only Meta's chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, can lift the indefinite hiring freeze.

Meta's AI efforts have been divided into four teams as part of the company's overall restructuring efforts.

The "TBD Lab" houses the majority of the new hires for superintelligence, while another team focuses on AI products, another on infrastructure, and a third on long-term projects and discoveries.