Meta may have already lost the AI wars to faster, more nimble companies that jumped to an early lead over the social media giant.

OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google are three of the top companies pushing generative AI developments. OpenAI and Microsoft, in particular, were first to the market with their next-gen AI chatbots.

TechRadar’s Christian Guyton has written a though-provoking piece declaring, “Meta was late to the AI party – and now it’ll never beat ChatGPT.” In his article, Guyton makes the case that things are not going well for Meta in its efforts to catch up to its rivals.

In particular, the social media giant appears to be suffering a major case of “brain drain,” losing a third of its AI staff in 2022 alone. Many of those who left the company “cited burnout or lack of faith in the company’s leadership as their reasons for departing. An internal survey from earlier this year showed that just 26% of employees expressed confidence in Meta’s direction as a business.”

Adding insult to injury, Guyton points out that Meta’s AI lead Yann LeCun was not among those invited to the White House for its recent Companies at the Frontier of Artificial Intelligence Innovation summit.

Given how far behind Meta is falling in AI developments, it’s beginning to look like some of the company’s employees were correct in their criticism of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s obsession with the metaverse.

Zuckerberg is throwing some $10 to $15 billion per year at the metaverse, but many employees believe he is doing so at the expense of the company’s overall health and innovation.

“The Metaverse will be our slow death,” said one employee, identifying as a senior software developer. “Mark Zuckerberg will single-handedly kill a company with the meta-verse.”

“Poor leadership is on track to sink this ship,” said another employee, who identified as a senior technical program manager. “No accountability at and above Director level. VPs and Directors are here to just milk the company without adding any value.”

“I thought it was a data-driven company but actually it is one man’s gut feeling and emotions-driven,” they added. “Nobody can overwrite his decision.”