Who is Chaya Nayak? Indian origin techie quits Meta to ‘turn a new page’ with OpenAI

Mark Zuckerberg led Meta has seen many high profile departures in the last few weeks and joining the list now is an Indian origin techie named Chaya Nayak who has left the tech giant for rival OpenAI. Notably, just a few months ago, Zuckerberg had set up the company's new Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) by poaching in top talent from other AI companies, that included over 10 employees from OpenAI if reports are to believed. 

She joined Meta as ‘Head of Data for Good’ in October 2016 and was later elevated to the position of Product Manager & Head of Research & Transparency in June, 2018. In her latest stint at the company, Nayak assumed the role of Director of Product Management, Generative AI.

“I remember my first weeks at Facebook like they were yesterday. I joined to help jumpstart Data for Good, an effort to show how data and AI/ML could benefit the world. What started as a bold experiment grew into the foundation of my career.” Nayak wrote in a post on LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn post also details that Nayak built products that supported communities in crisit with Disaster Maps. She also established the Facebook Open Research and Transparency Team to work on problems like data cleaning, differential privacy, and clean rooms. 

Nayak states that she played a crucial role in critical global moments like the US 2020 elections where she co-authored several papers in leading journals, including Science, on Meta’s impact on democracy.

“Along the way, I grew as a leader. I learned confidence, boldness to chase audacious ideas, and resilience when things didn’t go as planned. Most importantly, I built a network of colleagues and friends who shaped me and inspired me every step of the way.” she added

As Meta worked put its focus on building its own generative AI chatbot, Nayak worked on the last three generations of Llama and Meta AI in order to solve “hard problems at incredible speed, and imagining what the next wave of AI could mean for society.”

At OpenAI, Nayak would lead special Intitatives with Irina Kofman, another former Meta employee that jumped to ChatGPT maker last year. 

“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.” Nayak wrote about here move to OpenAI.

Meta sees many high profile depatures: 

The exit by Nayak comes at a time when Meta