GPT-5 effect: Meta prepping Superintelligent Llama AI at secret TBD Lab, report says

India Today

2 days ago

Just as OpenAI's GPT-5 is making waves, Meta is strapping in for its own AI arms race, and it's bringing a super-smart Llama to the starting line. The company has quietly assembled a new brain trust, nabbed some of the industry's brightest minds (often straight from rivals), and tucked them inside a covertly named unit: TBD Lab, according to The Wall Street Journal report.advertisementThe move comes barely a month after Meta merged all its AI ventures into a single powerhouse called Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). The grand plan, as put forward by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is nothing short of audacious: give 'personal superintelligence' to everyone on the planet. At the helm is Meta's new Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, who joined after Meta splashed out $14 billion for a stake in his former startup, Scale AI.TBD Lab, yes, it really stands for 'to be determined', has quickly become the beating heart of Meta's effort to build a mind sharper than any human's. It's also become a magnet for big-name AI researchers, many of whom have been coaxed away from competitors with offers ranging from dizzying millions to jaw-dropping billion-dollar packages spread over a few years.
According to those in the loop, as reported by WSJ, the lab's current crown jewel is the next upgrade to Meta's Llama large language model, the company's homegrown rival to OpenAI's GPT line. No official name yet, but inside the building it's been cheekily dubbed Llama 4.5 or Llama 4.X, depending on who you ask. The mission? Make it smarter, more nimble and one big leap closer to the elusive dream of machine superintelligence.In a recent staff memo, seen by the WSJ, Wang outlined how TBD Lab will work alongside other AI units at Meta on a range of initiatives: rolling out new model versions, bolstering reasoning skills, and building autonomous AI agents. He said the past month had already shown 'real, visible gains' from the collaboration, with multiple projects running in parallel to 'let us be bolder, move faster and hit cutting-edge breakthroughs sooner.'Overseeing the Llama revamp is Jack Rae, poached from Google's DeepMind. The project is a joint effort between TBD Lab's fresh recruits and the original Llama engineers, pooling their expertise to push the model's capabilities further.Zuckerberg, for his part, has hyped superintelligence as a technology that will not just enhance existing systems, but also unlock ideas and inventions that 'we can't even picture today.' Translation: this is not just an upgrade, it's an attempt to redraw the future.advertisementTo get there, Meta has been on a recruitment spree bordering on ruthless. By one count, at least 18 OpenAI staffers have defected to the Zuckerberg camp. Several ex-Google minds have joined too, including Tong He and Yuanzhong Xu. And for the truly irreplaceable, Meta hasn't been shy about waving around billion-dollar long-term pay packages.Not all the new faces came from outside. Nine members of an internal Meta infrastructure team were recently folded into the superintelligence programme after some were courted by Thinking Machines Lab, a startup led by former OpenAI heavyweight Mira Murati. Meta promptly reshuffled them into TBD Lab and sweetened their salaries.Dave Arnold, a Meta spokesman, insists there was nothing reactionary about the reshuffle. The transfers, he said, were 'already on the books' and the compensation adjustments 'would have happened regardless of who was trying to hire them,' reported WSJ.For now, much of the operation is shrouded in secrecy, fitting for a lab whose very name suggests unfinished business. But the scope, the spending and the star hires are hard to miss. Between the high-stakes projects, the swelling headcount and the quest for a machine mind that out-thinks us all, TBD Lab is fast becoming the most intriguing corner of Meta's empire.Whether 'to be determined' becomes 'mission accomplished' is anyone's guess. But one thing's certain: the AI race just got a lot wilder, and somewhere in Menlo Park, a superintelligent Llama is pawing at the gate, ready to run.- Ends