Latest news with #SuperintelligenceLabs
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AI Researcher Declines $1 Billion Offer From Mark Zuckerberg
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is absolutely tripping over himself to attract top AI talent to fill the ranks of his recently announced Superintelligence Labs — and he's willing to go to obscene lengths to make it happen. As Wired reports, more than a dozen people at Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI executive Mira Murati, were approached by Meta with ludicrous job offers. One individual was even offered more than $1 billion, paid out over several years, a source told Wired — a staggering amount of money, needless to say. But despite the mind-shattering amount of money on the table, not a single person at TML has taken the offer, hinting at some glaring brand issues Zuckerberg could be dealing with. Ouch! Meta communications director Andy Stone disputed the exact figures to Wired, but confirmed offers were made. The reporting suggests we've truly hit peak AI hype, as hundreds of billions of dollars are being poured into the tech despite little in the way of ROI in sight. The news comes as an increasingly desperate Zuckerberg has been offering enormous sign-on bonuses to flesh out his Superintelligence Labs, as part of a broader bid to stay relevant in the ongoing race currently being led by Meta's competitors, including OpenAI and Google. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg poached Ruoming Pang, the former head of Apple's fumbling "Apple Intelligence" software, as well as 28-year-old Scale AI cofounder Alexandr Wang, to lead the lab. "We've been following your work on advancing technology and the benefits of AI for everyone over the years," reads a message Zuckerberg previously sent to a potential recruit, as quoted by Wired. "We're making some important investments across research, products and our infrastructure in order to build the most valuable AI products and services for people." Meta has struggled to keep up with the competition, stumbling with the rollout of its latest Llama 4 large language model. Earlier this year, the company became embroiled in controversy after being accused of fudging the AI model's benchmark results. That general aura could have to do with why the TML staffers didn't take Meta up on its more-than-generous offers. For one, sources told Wired that they're not excited about Wang's leadership style, raising concerns over his "relative lack of experience." The Murati-led startup also raised the largest funding round in history, ballooning to a valuation of $12 billion in just a single year. In other words, they have plenty of money to throw at talent retention. As the AI hype continues to balloon to epic proportions, Zuckerberg is spending billions of dollars on AI talent to realize his hazy goal of creating what he calls "personal superintelligence." It's an enormous bet, as investors and economists are becoming increasingly wary of a dot-com-style bubble in the AI space, where the tech is exciting-yet-imperfect, and a sustainable business model remains elusive. If anything, the latest news suggests AI researchers are in the driver's seat — and Zuckerberg's Meta is clearly not making the list as they continue to collect cushy job offers that could make them wildly wealthy overnight. More on Meta: Mark Zuckerberg Looks Like He's Been Taken Hostage as He Explains Plan for Deploying AI Superintelligence Errore nel recupero dei dati Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati
Indian Express
31-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Mark Zuckerberg says his ‘Superintelligence AI' will help people achieve personal goals but what does that mean?
Mark Zuckerberg, the most powerful person in Silicon Valley, doesn't want to take the path where artificial intelligence automates everything and puts people out of their jobs. Instead, his vision for creating 'personal intelligence' is rooted in the idea that people should use AI to achieve their personal goals. 'Meta's vision is to bring personal superintelligence to everyone. We believe in putting this power in people's hands to direct it toward what they value in their own lives,' he said in a blog post. 'This is distinct from others in the industry who believe superintelligence should be directed centrally towards automating all valuable work, and then humanity will live on a dole of its output.' Zuckerberg's vision for AI involves 'personal superintelligence' Zuckerberg has made it clear that his approach to artificial intelligence differs from others in Silicon Valley. The work that Meta's Superintelligence Labs and its newly recruited superintelligence team will focus on is developing AI to improve people's personal lives – not to automate work, which has become a growing concern as more companies lay off employees due to AI adoption in the workplace. A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck) 'I am extremely optimistic that superintelligence will help humanity accelerate our pace of progress. But perhaps even more important is that superintelligence has the potential to begin a new era of personal empowerment, where people will have greater agency to improve the world in the directions they choose,' Zuckerberg said. Currently, superintelligence does not exist. But if it ever becomes a reality, it would be an AI capable of teaching itself, learning from mistakes, writing code as well as or better than humans, and potentially even making emotional or ethical judgments. Superintelligence is fundamentally different from where AI stands today. The tools we currently interact with such as AI chatbots like ChatGPT are far from reaching that level of autonomy and capability. The biggest question surrounding Meta's ambitious AI project is: How will it differ from the AI we are experiencing today? Will it move us closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI), or will it land somewhere between current AI capabilities and true AGI? It's also unclear whether superintelligence will eventually power devices like smartphones and smart glasses, or if the next generation of AI models will evolve beyond current multimodal systems, which understand text, video, and images and focus instead on continual learning and deeper contextual understanding that extends beyond static datasets. Imagine AI models capable of powering humanoids – machines that can adapt, reason, and interact like humans in the physical world. For now, however, none of the AI models from top labs have these capabilities. As the CEO of a $1.75 trillion company, Zuckerberg did not outline specific products or applications Meta plans to launch, but he did hint at how the company will release its AI models as it pursues 'superintelligence.' 'We believe the benefits of superintelligence should be shared with the world as broadly as possible. That said, superintelligence will raise novel safety concerns. We will need to be rigorous about mitigating these risks and careful about what we choose to open source.' Zuckerberg carefully chose his words and specifically emphasized 'open source,' signaling a shift in Meta's strategy. Like its competitors, Meta now appears to be moving toward keeping its AI models closed. While its existing models: Llama are partially open source, they are not fully open. Closed models give the company greater control over how it develops and monetizes its AI technology. Although it remains unclear how Meta's superintelligence AI will differ from existing tools and chatbots, the focus on 'personal superintelligence' suggests the company may deliver the next chapter in AI through its own ecosystem, including apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, as well as hardware like smart glasses, AR devices, and mixed-reality headsets. Zuckerberg has been bullish on artificial intelligence and is committed to spending billions of dollars on building both AI infrastructure and a global team of top AI researchers. In fact, he personally spent months assembling a list of elite AI engineers and scientists, recruiting them to join Meta Superintelligence Labs, the unit dedicated to creating world-class AI models that could surpass human intelligence. Meta has been racing to keep up with competitors like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. To achieve its ambitions, Meta is aggressively poaching AI talent from rival companies, offering eye-popping compensation packages – in some cases as high as $200 million. The company is clearly trying to win the AI race with money. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is leaving no stone unturned in its pursuit of AI dominance, investing billions in AI research and development. However, some industry observers question Meta's current AI strategy. Its Llama models aren't the best, and delays in launching its flagship model, known internally as 'Behemoth', have raised questions on Meta's AI development strategy. Meanwhile, OpenAI is expected to release GPT-5 as soon as August. Also Read | Meta is experimenting with AI chatbots that might slide into your DMs Earlier this month, Meta announced a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI and hired its CEO, Alexandr Wang, to lead its Superintelligence team. The 28-year-old will now oversee a group composed of top-tier AI researchers, including alumni from PhD programs at UC Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon. Many researchers from Apple and OpenAI have already joined the team, including Ruoming Pang, who previously led Apple's AI models division and is reportedly earning a compensation package in the hundreds of millions over several years. Zuckerberg told analysts Wednesday during a second-quarter earnings that its newly setup Superintelligent AI team are 'the absolute best and most elite talent-dense team' that can access the resources they need from a 'leading compute fleet.' Meta made it clear that winning the AI war comes with a heavy price tag. 'When we take a technology, we're good at driving that through all of our apps and our ad systems,' Zuckerberg said. 'There's no other company that is as good as us at kind of taking something and getting it in front of billions of people.' The company said it expects its total expenses for 2025 to come in the range of $114 billion and $118 billion. Meta's strong Q2 earnings surpassed Wall Street's estimates, sending the stock soaring in after-hours trading. The company reported revenue of $47.52 billion, compared to expectations for $44.3 billion. Investors, however, are not in a panic mode with Meta's expensive endeavors. The company previously bet heavily on the metaverse, investing billions of dollars but the metaverse never truly took off. Meta's grand vision for AI dominance also includes building hardware designed around artificial intelligence. Its Ray-Ban smart glasses, AI-ready eyewear that allows users to make calls, take photos, and perform other functions, have performed well commercially. 'I think personal devices like glasses that can see what we see, hear what we hear, and interact with us throughout the day will become our main computing devices,' Zuckerberg said in a social media video posted on X. Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica reported in its most recent earnings report that sales of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses more than tripled in the first half of the year. Anuj Bhatia is a personal technology writer at who has been covering smartphones, personal computers, gaming, apps, and lifestyle tech actively since 2011. He specialises in writing longer-form feature articles and explainers on trending tech topics. His unique interests encompass delving into vintage tech, retro gaming and composing in-depth narratives on the intersection of history, technology, and popular culture. He covers major international tech conferences and product launches from the world's biggest and most valuable tech brands including Apple, Google and others. At the same time, he also extensively covers indie, home-grown tech startups. Prior to joining The Indian Express in late 2016, he served as a senior tech writer at My Mobile magazine and previously held roles as a reviewer and tech writer at Gizbot. Anuj holds a postgraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. You can find Anuj on Linkedin. Email: ... Read More
Business Insider
26-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun clarifies his role after the company hires another chief AI scientist
The more the merrier at Meta. The AI talent wars took another turn on Friday when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT and the former lead scientist at OpenAI, is now the chief scientist at Meta's Superintelligence Labs. "In this role, Shengjia will set the research agenda and scientific direction for our new lab working directly with me and Alex," a statement shared to Zuckerberg's Threads account said. "Shengjia co-founded the new lab and has been our lead scientist from day one." The statement said Meta chose to formalize Zhao's leadership position because recruiting is "going well" and the team "is coming together." While the announcement elicited congratulatory remarks from some AI enthusiasts online, and more discussion about Meta's ongoing poaching spree, others asked: What about Yann LeCun? LeCun became a prominent figure in the AI industry after joining Meta, then Facebook, in 2013. He serves as the chief AI scientist for Meta's Fundamental AI Research, formerly known as Facebook AI Research. On LinkedIn, LeCun acknowledged the questions and clarified his role at Meta. "My role as Chief Scientist for FAIR has always been focused on long-term AI research and building the next AI paradigms," LeCun wrote on Friday. "My role and FAIR's mission are unchanged." Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang, the Scale AI founder who joined Meta in June as its chief AI officer, confirmed that LeCun's role is unchanged on their respective social media accounts. What's the difference between Meta's FAIR and its Superintelligence Labs? Although both FAIR and the Superintelligence Labs deal with AI, they're slightly different. Meta created FAIR over a decade ago to research and advance AI technology, which resulted in the 2023 release of its open-source large language model, Llama. LeCun is now largely focused on developing a new kind of model, known as a world model, that could one day replace large language models. The Superintelligence Labs, meanwhile, is the umbrella department housing Meta's FAIR, foundations, and products teams, Zuckerberg said in an internal memo in June. Zuckerberg said the Superintelligence Labs would focus on developing "personal superintelligence for everyone." Bloomberg reported that LeCun would report to Wang. Wang praised Zhao in an X post on Friday. "Shengjia is a brilliant scientist who most recently pioneered a new scaling paradigm in his research," Wang said in an X post on Friday. "He will lead our scientific direction for our team." LeCun said he's looking forward to working with Zhao "to accelerate the integration of new research into our most advanced models."
Mint
26-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Google DeepMind CEO takes a dig at Meta's poaching spree: ‘Some things are more important than money…'
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has reacted to Meta poaching AI talent from other startups while offering hefty packages to potential recruits. Hassabis called Mark Zuckerberg's company's poaching attempts 'rational', given that they are lagging behind in the generative AI race compared to the competition. Notably, Meta had started its Superintelligence Labs earlier this year, headed by former Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang and ex-GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. The new initiative was set up after a dull reception to its Llama model launches in April. Reports suggest that Zuckerberg was personally involved in the hiring for this team, wooing top talent with packages going as high as $200 million a year. What followed were reports of several AI researchers from OpenAI, Google, and even Apple quitting their respective companies, as the war for AI talent Reacting to Meta's hiring push, Hassabis said, 'There's a strategy that Meta is taking right now… I think the people that are real believers in the mission of AGI and what it can do—and understand the consequences, both good and bad—are mostly doing it to be at the frontier, so they can help influence how that plays out and steward the technology safely into the world.' He added, 'Meta right now are not at the frontier. Maybe they'll manage to get back there. And it's probably rational, what they're doing from their perspective—because they're behind and they need to do something. But I think there are more important things than just money. Of course, one has to pay people market rates—and those continue to go up.' Hassabis also reflected on how drastically the AI industry has changed since DeepMind's early days. 'We couldn't raise any money. I didn't pay myself for a couple of years. And these days, interns are being paid what we raised as our entire first seed round.'
Business Insider
26-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Meta just hired the co-creator of ChatGPT in an escalating AI talent war with OpenAI
Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former lead scientist at OpenAI, is joining Meta as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Labs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Zhao's appointment on Friday in a social media post, and called him a "pioneer" in the field who has already driven several major AI breakthroughs. Zhao previously helped build GPT-4 and led synthetic data efforts at OpenAI. According to the post, Zhao will now work directly with Zuckerberg and Meta's newly appointed chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, the founder and CEO of Scale AI. The new hire comes during Zuckerberg's multibillion-dollar AI spending spree, including a $15 billion investment in Scale AI and the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs, a new division focused on foundational models and next-gen research. In addition to Zhao, the company has lured away the three researchers who built OpenAI's Zurich office — Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai — all of whom previously also worked at Google's DeepMind. The Superintelligence Labs team is now comprised of a lineup of names previously seen with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. But the war for AI talent is far from over. Databricks VP Naveen Rao likened the competition to "looking for LeBron James," estimating that fewer than 1,000 people worldwide can build frontier AI models. Companies without the cash for massive pay packages are turning to hackathons and computing power as incentives. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said a Meta researcher he tried to poach told him to ask again when the company has "10,000 H100s." AI tech workers have previously told Business Insider that Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has been emailing prospects directly and even hosting AI researchers at his home, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has made personal calls to potential hires. Tech company executives have mixed feelings about Meta's poaching efforts. "Meta right now are not at the frontier, maybe they'll they'll manage to get back on there," said Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, on an episode of the "Lex Fridman Podcast," which aired on Friday. "It's probably rational what they're doing from their perspective because they're behind and they need to do something," Hassabis added. During a July 18 episode of the podcast "Uncapped with Jack Altman," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman criticised some of Meta's "giant offers" to his company's employees, and called the strategy "crazy."
