Meta has made a major move in the AI world by appointing Shengjia Zhao, a notable co-creator of ChatGPT, as the Chief Scientist of its newly established Superintelligence Lab. Zhao, who played a pivotal role in developing ChatGPT and GPT-4 during his tenure at OpenAI, joins Meta at a time when the company is vying to catch up with rivals in the artificial intelligence race.
In his new position, Zhao will steer research at Meta’s specialized Superintelligence unit. He will collaborate directly with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who was formerly the CEO of Scale AI. The leadership team also includes former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, reflecting Meta’s strategy of assembling a blend of technical and business expertise.
Meta’s recruitment of Zhao highlights a fierce talent war among leading tech companies. The company has been ramping up hiring from rivals, including OpenAI and Google DeepMind, and offering lucrative compensation packages to attract top AI researchers. Reports indicate that Mark Zuckerberg himself has been personally involved in recruitment efforts.
The focus of the Superintelligence Lab will be to push the boundaries of AI systems—especially those with artificial general intelligence (AGI)—while making much of the research open-source. Zhao is expected to set the research agenda for the lab, particularly targeting the development of advanced AI reasoning capabilities, a domain where Meta aims to improve.
This appointment comes as Meta accelerates efforts to close performance gaps noted after its previous Llama AI models fell short against competitors. Industry analysts believe that Zhao’s technical depth, paired with Wang’s business acumen, provides Meta with a balanced leadership poised for future advances in AI.
The company has not provided a specific timeline for when the next generation of its AI innovations will be available to the public.
