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Meta Parts Ways With Virtue AI Co-Founders Four Months After Hiring Them
In Short
Meta parts ways with co-founders and employees of AI startup Virtue AI just four months after hiring them; Andy Stone cites differences in working styles.
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Meta
Meta is parting ways with the employees of an AI safety startup it acquired only a few months ago. The tech giant has reportedly ended its relationship with Virtue AI co-founders-Bo Li, Dawn Song, and Sanmi Koyejo-and other staff members, just four months after bringing them into Meta Superintelligence Labs in June. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the departures to Semafor, stating that the arrangement did not work out as planned due to differences in working styles.
This decision follows Meta's recruitment of the Virtue AI team to bolster its initiatives regarding AI safety and risks associated with cutting-edge systems ("frontier risks"). The startup had previously collaborated with companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI, as well as the Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Meta says the arrangement with Virtue AI did not work out
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the departures to Semafor and attributed the decision to differences in the team's working styles.
"Unfortunately, the arrangement did not work out as planned," Stone noted, adding that Meta Superintelligence Labs remains focused on AI safety, alignment, and frontier risks.
These departures come as Meta continues to define its AI strategy and expand its capabilities regarding increasingly advanced AI systems.
The company has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence, even as AI safety has become a growing area of focus for both tech companies and policymakers.
Meta hired the founders of Virtue AI in June
In June, Axios reported that Meta Superintelligence Labs had hired the co-founders of Virtue AI-Bo Li, Dawn Song, and Sanmi Koyejo-as well as other members of the startup's team.
The hiring was aimed at bolstering Meta's safety initiatives regarding AI agents, at a time of growing concern over the safety of increasingly capable AI systems.
Virtue AI had developed enterprise AI safety tools covering automated safety testing (red teaming), runtime guardrails, and AI governance. The startup had also previously collaborated with Anthropic, OpenAI, and the Department of Commerce's NIST. However, the terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"As we bring AI products to billions of people and develop increasingly capable agents, ensuring that these systems are safe, reliable, and trustworthy is fundamental," the memo notes.
Li and Song were set to report to Nat Friedman, an executive at Meta Superintelligence Labs, while Koyejo was to report to Rob Fergus, director of FAIR, Meta’s fundamental AI research lab.
Why Meta hired the Virtue AI team
Meta’s decision to bring on the founders of Virtue AI reflected the company’s broader effort to bolster AI safety as it develops models and agents with greater capabilities.
The startup’s work focused on identifying potential risks in AI systems and developing tools to test and secure them. Its technology included automated adversarial safety testing (red teaming) to detect vulnerabilities in AI systems, as well as runtime safeguards and governance tools.
This hiring move also served as another example of how Meta brings in specialised groups of AI researchers and engineers rather than acquiring an entire startup.
Meta remains committed to AI safety
Despite the departure of the Virtue AI team, Stone stated that Meta Superintelligence Labs remains focused on safety, alignment, and frontier AI risks.
This comes at a time when AI companies are facing increasing scrutiny regarding how they develop, test, and deploy increasingly capable systems. AI agents, in particular, have gained prominence as companies work on systems capable of performing more complex tasks with less human intervention.
Meta’s decision to hire the Virtue AI team in June was part of that broader strategy. However, the collaboration lasted only four months before the company decided to let the employees go.
Meta has made similar hires of AI teams
The hiring of Virtue AI also aligned with Meta’s broader strategy of recruiting specialised teams from smaller AI companies.
In March, Meta brought on the founders and team behind Dreamer, an AI startup focused on helping people create agents. This approach allows the company to acquire specialised talent and expertise without having to purchase the entire company.
The departure of the Virtue AI team now represents a much shorter-lived instance of that strategy; Meta confirmed that differences in working styles contributed to the end of the collaboration. The company, however, continues to expand its AI operations as the race to develop increasingly capable models and agents intensifies.
