Shengjia Zhao Appointed Chief Scientist of AI Superintelligence Unit

Meta Appoints Shengjia Zhao to Lead New AI Research Lab

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, revealed on Friday the appointment of Shengjia Zhao, previously a researcher at OpenAI, to spearhead research initiatives within the company’s newly established AI division, Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL).

Key Contributions from OpenAI

Zhao played a significant role in the development of several groundbreaking advancements at OpenAI, notably including ChatGPT, GPT-4, and the pioneering AI reasoning model, o1.

Formalizing Leadership

Zuckerberg announced the appointment via a post on Threads, stating, “I’m excited to share that Shengjia Zhao will be the Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs.” He further explained that Zhao was a co-founder of the lab and has been functioning as the lead scientist since its inception.

With recruitment efforts progressing successfully and the team taking shape, the decision was made to officially recognize Zhao’s leadership position.

Reporting Structure and Responsibilities

Zhao will be responsible for defining the research direction for MSL, operating under the guidance of Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI.

Strengthening the Leadership Team

Wang’s appointment, despite lacking a traditional research background, was considered unconventional for leading an AI lab. The inclusion of Zhao, a highly respected research leader with a proven track record in developing cutting-edge AI models, completes the leadership structure.

Meta has actively recruited numerous prominent researchers from organizations such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Safe Superintelligence, Apple, and Anthropic. Additionally, researchers have been drawn from Meta’s existing Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab and generative AI division.

Focus on AI Reasoning

Zuckerberg highlighted Zhao’s pioneering work, including the development of a “new scaling paradigm.” This likely refers to Zhao’s contributions to OpenAI’s reasoning model, o1, where he collaborated with OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever.

Currently, Meta does not have a direct competitor to o1, making AI reasoning models a crucial area of focus for MSL.

Recent Recruits

Reports in June indicated Zhao’s impending move to Meta Superintelligence Labs, alongside other influential OpenAI researchers: Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Hongyu Ren. Further recruitment included Trapit Bansal, also from OpenAI, and three employees from OpenAI’s Zurich office specializing in multimodality.

Aggressive Recruitment Strategy

Zuckerberg has been actively pursuing talent to ensure MSL’s success. This has involved direct outreach to researchers and invitations to his estate in Lake Tahoe.

Meta has reportedly offered substantial compensation packages, including some “exploding offers” with limited validity periods, reaching eight and nine figures.

Infrastructure Investment

Meta is also significantly increasing its investment in cloud computing infrastructure to support the extensive training runs necessary for developing competitive frontier AI models.

Prometheus Cloud Cluster

By 2026, Zhao and the MSL team will have access to Meta’s Prometheus cloud computing cluster, a 1 gigawatt facility located in Ohio. This will position Meta among the first technology companies with an AI training cluster of this scale.

A 1 gigawatt capacity is sufficient to power over 750,000 homes, enabling the massive computational demands of frontier AI model training.

Dual Leadership in AI

With Zhao’s appointment, Meta now has two chief AI scientists, alongside Yann LeCun, who leads Meta’s FAIR lab.

While MSL focuses on developing superintelligence, FAIR is dedicated to long-term AI research, exploring techniques with potential applications in the next 5 to 10 years. The precise coordination between Meta’s three AI units remains to be determined.

Competitive Positioning

Nevertheless, Meta now possesses a robust AI leadership team, positioning the company to effectively compete with industry leaders like OpenAI and Google.