Who is Trapit Bansal? Ex-OpenAI researcher joins Meta Superintelligence labs with a whopping signing deal

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Trapit Bansal, a prominent name in AI research, has officially joined Meta Superintelligence Labs, reportedly with a joining bonus of ₹800 crore. The former OpenAI researcher shared the news on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “Thrilled to be joining Meta! Superintelligence is now in sight.”


Who is Trapit Bansal?
  • An accomplished AI researcher, Trapit Bansal has an academic background rooted in mathematics, statistics, and computer science. His work spans across natural language processing (NLP), deep learning, and meta-learning.
  • Bansal earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from IIT Kanpur.
  • He pursued a Master of Science and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
  • During his studies, he interned at top tech firms including IISc Bengaluru, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
Career Highlights
  • In 2017, Bansal interned at OpenAI for four months during his academic tenure.
  • He officially joined OpenAI in January 2022 as a Member of Technical Staff, where he contributed to reinforcement learning (RL) and advanced AI reasoning research, working closely with OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever.
  • He is credited as a co-creator of a model known as “01,” although details about the project remain undisclosed, as per his LinkedIn profile.

Described by TechCrunch as “a highly influential OpenAI researcher,” Bansal’s move to Meta marks another major step in his rapidly rising AI career.