Meta hired an AI safety team. Four months later, it fired its co-founders and employees

Meta has parted ways with Bo Li, Dawn Song and Sanmi Koyejo, the co-founders of Virtue AI, along with other members of the startup's team, according to an article published by peoplematters.in. The team had joined Meta Superintelligence Labs in June. The headline on the article reads: 'Meta hired an AI safety team. Four months later, it fired its co-founders and employees.' The item appears under the site's strategic HR news section.

A Meta spokesperson told Semafor that the arrangement "didn't work out as planned." The spokesperson said Meta Superintelligence Labs remains committed to work around AI safety, alignment and frontier risk despite the departures. The article names the three departed co-founders — Bo Li, Dawn Song and Sanmi Koyejo — and states that other members of the Virtue AI team left Meta as well.

The article reports the departures approximately four months after the Virtue AI team joined Meta Superintelligence Labs in June. It presents the sequence as a hiring followed closely by a parting of ways with the same group. The Meta spokesperson's statement to Semafor is the only explanation the article cites for the outcome. The piece is framed around the contrast between the June hiring and the departures four months later. The article does not report the size of the team, the terms of the departures, or the reasons behind them. No information about next steps for the departed team members is included.