Today's big tech companies are paying huge sums of money to attract the brightest minds in the field of artificial intelligence. Meta recently announced a $250 million offer for young researcher Matt Dietke, spread over four years, equivalent to $62.5 million a year, with the prospect of $100 million in the first year alone.

This offer exceeds all previous scientific reparations in history, surpassing the wages of scientists who have been involved in critical projects such as the development of the atomic bomb or the moon landing.

Who is Matt Dietke and why does this number raise eyebrows?

Daiteki led the development of a multimedia AI system known as Molmo during his tenure at the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and co-founded a startup called VerseSpot. His expertise lies in building systems that combine images, sounds, and text, which are exactly the skills Meta is racing to have to develop superintelligence technologies.

Dietki is no exception, as Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly offered another AI researcher a deal that could be as high as $1 billion. These figures reflect the companies' belief that the winner of the AI race could dominate billions of dollars in markets.

A historical comparison shows the size of the

gap Robert Oppenheimer, the leader of the Manhattan Project, paid $10,000 a year in 1943, which is equivalent to about $190,000 in today's terms. Daitek, a 24-year-old who recently dropped out of the doctoral program, will earn 327 times that amount.

Even high-profile athletes find it difficult to keep up with these numbers. Steve Curry's latest contract with the Golden State Warriors was $35 million less than Dietke's, while Cristiano Ronaldo's annual salary is only $275 million, the highest among athletes.

Previously, scientists and engineers were modestly paid. During the 1950s and 1960s, great scientists such as Claude Shannon worked at Bell's labs on regular salaries. The manager in the lab was only paid 12 times the minimum salary of the employee.