Meta Launches Superintelligence Labs With Billion‑Dollar AI Vision

9 months ago

Meta is taking its AI ambitions to the next level as CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces a newly created division known as Meta Superintelligence Labs, with the ultimate aim of creating personal AI systems that rival human cognition.

Zuckerberg has shared a long‑term vision in which every individual receives their own “personal superintelligence,” an AI assistant aligned with personal aspirations, helping with creativity, relationships, and personal growth.

He contrasted this goal with contemporaries who focus more on automating labor or redistributing its gains through universal basic income. Meta, on the other hand, wants users to direct superintelligence toward what matters in their lives. To accelerate this plan, Meta has recently invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI to secure founder‑CEO Alexandr Wang as its Chief AI Officer.

Entrusting Wang to lead Superintelligence Labs alongside co‑leader Nat Friedman, Meta has now officially launched the division at its Menlo Park campus, combining all internal AI units, including Meta AI and Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research, under one roof.

An equally ambitious war for talent is also underway. Meta has hired Shengjia Zhao, a former OpenAI lead scientist credited with building ChatGPT and GPT‑4, and has named him Chief Scientist of the Superintelligence Labs. The company has offered compensation packages that dwarf industry norms, even surpassing $1 billion for top researchers.

Meta has already tempted away experts from Apple, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, including several from Apple’s foundation model team. These moves have drawn criticism from industry figures like OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who described the strategy as excessively financially driven and potentially harmful to company culture.

These investments come amid mounting pressure from competitors. Meta’s latest open‑source Llama 4 model fell short of internal expectations and underperformed compared to rivals like OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind.

Less capable models and disappointing traction prompted Zuckerberg to force a major reorganization of AI efforts.

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