Mark Zuckerberg of Meta introduces AI ‘Superintelligence Labs’

Meta’s Shift Towards Super Intelligence

On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg revealed plans to reorganize Meta’s AI sector with a focus on achieving what he termed “super intelligence.” This move indicates a significant shift in the company’s strategy.

Zuckerberg, who is 41, informed his team that Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI, will lead the newly established meta-super intelligence lab. This comes after Zuckerberg invested almost $15 billion for a 49% stake in Wang’s startup.

“As AI development speeds up, we are witnessing the approach of super intelligence,” Zuckerberg conveyed in a message directed at employees. Meta’s sources have corroborated this announcement.

“We believe this could signal a new era for humanity, and we are fully committed to ensuring Meta plays a leading role,” he added.

In the memo, Zuckerberg referred to Wang as “the most impressive founder of his generation.”

Wang is set to collaborate closely with Nat Friedman, the former CEO of GitHub, who will manage AI products and applied research.

As for market performance, shares for the parent company of Facebook and Instagram reached $747.90 during daytime trading, then saw a slight increase to roughly $738 per share by 3:15 PM, representing a 0.6% rise.

The company recently hit a high of $733.63 on Friday, amplifying its market value to around $1.86 trillion, placing it as the sixth highest-rated company globally.

Meta is in competition with firms like Google and Sam Altman’s OpenAI to advance their AI technologies. Zuckerberg seems to favor an “open source” approach to AI, one that is accessible by anyone, including users on Google and OpenAI platforms.

In his communication, Zuckerberg confirmed that Meta has recruited four additional researchers from OpenAI: Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren. So far, the total number of new hires from top tech companies has reached 11, including former Google employees.

Altman has openly expressed concern over Zuckerberg’s aggressive recruitment strategy. Earlier this month, he stated on a podcast that Zuckerberg had offered a substantial $100 million signing bonus to attract OpenAI talent.

During a recent all-hands meeting, Meta executive Andrew Bosworth reportedly challenged the narrative, telling staff that Altman was “dishonest” regarding the details of the offer.

Moreover, Lucas Beyer, a former OpenAI researcher, confirmed in a post that he and his peers, Alexander Kolesnikov and Shaofah Zai, were indeed recruited by Zuckerberg. However, Beyer pointed out that they “didn’t receive a $100 million sign-on bonus,” calling it “fake news.”