The things is, those paychecks are very large. A Program Manager (Meredith's role) averages about $125k/year, and one with Meredith's tenure might make as much as double with stock and bonus. Google has been paying her salary the last two years even though most of her work is at AI Now.
Going forward as an NYU employee, as a university researcher without an advanced degree, she will be lucky to clear $60k/year. In New York. Doing the exact same work she has been doing for the last two years