Tencent has recruited former OpenAI researcher Tian Yonglong to its large language model (LLM) department to help develop visual-language models, according to a source at Tencent cited by Yicai Global on Thursday, July 9. This is Tencent’s second recruitment from OpenAI, following the appointment of former OpenAI researcher Vinces Yao in December as head of artificial intelligence scientist and head of the AI Infra and LLM department. Tian holds a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, with research areas including computer vision and generative models, and previously worked at DeepMind before OpenAI, where he worked with Yao. Senior Executive Vice President Dowson Tong said Yao simplified many processes, and Tencent’s LLM, Hunyuan, has made great progress. Yao previously led AI agent development at OpenAI and now reports to Tencent President Martin Lau, also leading Hunyuan’s development; Tencent introduced a preview version of Hy3 in April and released the Hy3 version earlier this month. Yao also helped promote joint design between Hunyuan and Tencent’s AI-based consumer app, Yuanbao.