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Meta has recently made headlines with its appointment of Shengjia Zhao as the Chief Scientist of the newly established Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). This strategic move aims to position Meta at the forefront of advancements in artificial superintelligence.
On Friday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Zhao’s new role via Threads, highlighting that Zhao will steer the scientific agenda of MSL in collaboration with himself and Alexandr Wang, the incoming Chief AI Officer and former CEO of Scale AI.
“I am very excited to take up the role of chief scientist for meta super-intelligence labs. Looking forward to building asi [artificial superintelligence] and aligning it to empower people with the amazing team here. Let’s build!” Zhao expressed on Threads.
The term “artificial superintelligence” represents a frontier in the AI industry, referring to systems that could outstrip human intelligence in virtually every cognitive task. This notion raises questions about control and safety, making the venture both monumental and challenging.
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Zhao’s Strong Commercial AI Background
Before joining Meta, Zhao’s contributions at OpenAI were instrumental in developing cutting-edge models like GPT-4 and GPT-4o, with numerous academic articles showcasing his expertise in generative models and equitable representations. His work has received significant attention in prominent research venues, including NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR.
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Zhao’s arrival at Meta occurs amid an intense recruitment race within the AI sector. Over recent months, the company has attracted talent from high-profile organizations such as OpenAI, Google, and Apple as part of a vast investment strategy focused on advancing superintelligence. Recent reports indicate that Meta has committed around $14.3 billion in Scale AI, resulting in a 49% stake and bringing Wang into the fold.
Compensation for these elite hires is notably high, with figures ranging from $100 million to $300 million over four years. Whispers in the industry revealed that Meta even offered a staggering $1.25 billion to a single candidate, a figure that underscores the urgency and ambition driving this hiring initiative.
Aspirations of Leading the AI Frontier
Zuckerberg is vocal about his mission to propel Meta into a leadership role in the evolving AI landscape, stating a commitment to invest “hundreds of billions of dollars into compute to build superintelligence.” His assertion that the right team is crucial for developing models emphasizes the company’s focus on attracting top-tier talent.
The establishment of MSL represents Meta’s strategy to align its efforts in artificial superintelligence with human interests while maintaining a clear separation from its existing fundamental AI research group (FAIR), led by renowned scientist Yann LeCun. This shift reflects Meta’s transition toward a more product-driven and mission-focused approach in AI development.
Making Up for the Mixed Reception of LLaMA 4
Despite these ambitious plans, Meta’s entry into superintelligence follows a challenging rollout of its latest open-source model, the LLaMA 4. Released in April 2025, the model aimed to excel in multimodal reasoning and long-context understanding but faced scrutiny due to poor performance metrics compared to competitors.
The modeling community expressed disappointment, leveraging feedback that highlighted issues such as vague benchmarks, inconsistent quality, and dubious claims of performance enhancement. Shouldering some blame for these missteps, internal sources have pointed to rapid development timelines and unresolved bugs as contributing factors to the LLaMA 4’s less than stellar debut.
Endorsements from prominent figures in AI, such as Jim Fan, who described Zhao as “one of the brightest” scientists, signal a chorus of support for Meta’s new direction under MSL. As the company looks ahead, its aggressive investment strategy illustrates a keen recognition of the importance of establishing a stronghold in what it sees as the next transformative technology platform—one capable of redefining the fabric of society akin to the mobile internet. In Zuckerberg’s view, the pursuit of artificial superintelligence is not just aspirational; it embodies the future landscape of technology.
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