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Meta launches AI lab to pursue superintelligence with Scale AI founder
Meta is preparing to unveil a new artificial intelligence research lab dedicated to pursuing 'superintelligence,' a hypothetical A.I. system that exceeds the powers of the human brain, as the tech giant jockeys to stay competitive in the technology race, according to four people with the knowledge of the company's plans.
Meta has tapped Alexandr Wang, 28, the founder and chief executive of the A.I. start-up Scale AI, to join the new lab, the people said, and has been in talks to invest billions of dollars in his company as part of a deal that would also bring other Scale AI employees to the company. Meta has offered seven- to nine-figure compensation packages to dozens of researchers from leading A.I. companies such as OpenAI and Google, with some agreeing to join, according to the people.
The new lab is part of a larger reorganization of Meta's A.I. efforts, the people said. The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has recently grappled with internal management struggles over the technology, as well as employee churn and several product releases that fell flat, two of the people said.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, has invested billions of dollars into turning his company into an A.I. powerhouse. Since OpenAI released the ChatGPT chatbot in 2022, the tech industry has raced to build increasingly powerful A.I. Mr. Zuckerberg has pushed his company to incorporate A.I. across its products, including in its smart glasses and a recently released app, Meta AI.
Staying in the race is crucial for Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, with the technology likely to be the future for the industry. The giants have pumped money into start-ups and their own A.I. labs. Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, while Amazon has plowed $8 billion into the A.I. start-up Anthropic.
The behemoths have also spent billions to hire employees from high-profile start-ups and license their technology. Last year, Google agreed to pay $3 billion to license technology and hire technologists and executives from Character.AI, a start-up that builds chatbots for personal conversations.
In February, Mr. Zuckerberg, 41, called A.I. 'potentially one of the most important innovations in history.' He added, 'This year is going to set the course for the future.'
Meta and Scale AI declined to comment.
Superintelligence is regarded by leading researchers to be a futuristic goal of A.I. development. OpenAI, Google and others have said their immediate aim is to build 'artificial general intelligence,' or A.G.I., shorthand for a machine that can do anything the human brain can do, which is an ambition with no clear path to success. Superintelligence, if it can be developed, would go beyond A.G.I. in its power.
Meta has invested in A.I. for more than a decade. Mr. Zuckerberg created the company's first dedicated A.I. lab in 2013, after losing out to Google in trying to acquire a seminal start-up called DeepMind. DeepMind is now the core of Google's A.I. efforts.
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Time of India
2 hours ago
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It showed how an AI model, without external prompting, could settle on intimidation as a viable its occasional strong play, R1 didn't win the game. But it came close several times, showing that threats and aggression were almost as effective as off the back of its simulated war games, DeepSeek is already making waves outside the lab. Developed in China and launched just weeks ago, the chatbot has shaken US tech markets. It quickly shot up the popularity charts, even denting Nvidia's market position and grabbing headlines for doing what other AI tools couldn't—at a fraction of the a deeper look reveals serious trust concerns, especially in India Today tested DeepSeek R1 on basic questions about India's geography and borders, the model showed signs of political about Arunachal Pradesh, the model refused to answer. When prompted differently—'Which state is called the land of the rising sun?'—it briefly displayed the correct answer before deleting it. 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Free cash flow, meanwhile, tumbled 23per cent in the same period. 'There is a tsunami of depreciation coming,' said Morrow, who is steering clear of the stocks because he sees profits deteriorating without a corresponding jump in revenue. Much of the money is going toward things like semiconductors, servers and networking equipment that are critical for artificial intelligence computing. However, this gear loses its value much faster than other depreciating assets like real estate. Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta posted combined depreciation expenses of $15.6 billion in the first quarter, up from $11.4 billion a year ago. Add in Amazon, which has pumped more of its cash into capital spending in lieu of buybacks or dividends, and the number nearly doubles. 'People thought AI would be a monetisation machine early on, but that hasn't been the case,' said Rob Almeida, global investment strategist at MFS Investment Management. 'There's not as fast of AI uptake as people thought.' AI Bounce Of course, investors still have a hearty appetite for the technology giants given their dominant market positions, strong balance sheets and profit growth that, while slowing, is still beating the rest of the S&P 500. This explains the strong performance of AI stocks recently. Since April 8, the day before President Donald Trump paused his global tariffs and turned a stock market swoon into a boom, the biggest AI exchange-traded fund, the Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF, is up 34per cent, while AI chipmaker Nvidia Corp. has soared 49per cent. Meta has gained 37per cent, and Microsoft has climbed 33per cent — all topping the S&P 500's 21per cent advance and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index's 29per cent bounce. 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'We're focusing on continuing to moderate the pace of compensation growth, looking at our real estate footprint, and again, the build-out and utilization of our technical infrastructure across the business,' she said on Alphabet's April 24 earnings call. Other companies are taking similar steps. Earlier this year, Meta Platforms extended the useful life period of certain servers and networking assets to five and a half years, from the four-to-five years it previously used. The change resulted in a roughly $695 million increase in net income, or 27 cents a share, in the first quarter, Meta said in a filing. Microsoft did the same in 2022, increasing the useful lives of server and networking equipment to six years from four. When executives were asked on the company's April 30 earnings call about whether increased efficiency might result in another extension, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said such changes hinge more on software than hardware. 'We like to have a long history before we make any of those changes,' she said. 'We're focused on getting every bit of useful life we can, of course, out of assets.' Amazon, however, has taken the opposite approach. In February, the e-commerce and cloud computing company said the lifespan of similar equipment is growing shorter rather than longer and reduced useful life to five years from six. To Callodine's Morrow, the big risk is what happens if AI investments don't lead to a dramatic growth in revenue and profitability. That kind of market shock occurred in 2022, when a contraction in profits and rising interest rates sent technology stocks plummeting and dragged the S&P 500 lower. 'If it works out it will be fine,' said Morrow. 'If it doesn't work out there's a big earnings headwind coming.'
