Zuckerberg Just Assembled Meta’s ‘Superintelligence’ AI Dream Team

Meta has come a long way. The company used to be known primarily as a social networking company with platforms like Facebook and Instagram. However, it is making a sharp pivot and wants to be seen at the forefront of AI development. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated this in a memo to employees, announcing the creation of a superintelligence AI group.

According to the memo, Zuckerberg announced a major restructuring of Meta’s AI group. This includes the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). This group will be led by Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI, which Meta acquired for an eye-watering $14 billion.

In the memo, Zuckerberg says, “As the pace of AI progress accelerates, developing superintelligence is coming into sight. I believe this will be the beginning of a new era for humanity, and I am fully committed to doing what it takes for Meta to lead the way.” The former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman will partner with Wang to help lead the newly created group.

The memo doesn’t discuss the specific plans of Meta’s new AI team apart from creating superintelligence AI, which is designed to perform as well as—if not better than—humans.

It is no secret that Meta wants to be at the forefront of AI. The company is expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI projects in the coming years.

Zuckerberg was quoted as saying last summer, “There’s a meaningful chance that a lot of the companies are overbuilding now. But on the flip side, I actually think all the companies that are investing are making a rational decision, because the downside of being behind is that you’re out of position for, like, the most important technology for the next 10 to 15 years.”

Before acquiring Scale AI, the company was already looking at other AI companies. Meta held talks with the likes of Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, as well as Perplexity. Coincidentally enough, Apple is also thinking about gobbling up Perplexity in its bid to boost its own AI efforts, which so far have fallen flat on their face.