Over at Meta, Shengjia Zhao was just named the chief scientist of Meta’s newly launching Superintelligence Labs. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the big announcement in an internal memo to employees. Zhao, who co-created the foundational technology behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, will be playing a central role in determining how generative artificial intelligence develops at Meta.
Zhao’s extensive experience in AI development includes his pivotal role in building OpenAI’s GPT-4 and its mini models. He most recently led OpenAI’s synthetic data team and has been with Meta from the beginning. Zuckerberg expressed confidence in Zhao’s abilities, noting that he “has already pioneered several breakthroughs including a new scaling paradigm and distinguished himself as a leader in the field.” Together with Meta’s upcoming entry into the generative AI race, this appointment represents a smart strategic shift toward bolstering its AI capabilities within an increasingly competitive landscape.
The announcement follows news that Zuckerberg is on a multibillion-dollar AI-related hiring spree to strengthen Meta’s AI talent. Recently, he made headlines with a substantial $14 billion investment in Scale AI, further emphasizing his commitment to advancing artificial intelligence. Zhao will join the aforementioned Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang, Meta’s chief AI officer and former CEO of Scale AI. Collectively, they will lead ambitious new initiatives through the lab.
In June, Zuckerberg revealed plans for the Meta Superintelligence Labs, which he described as a team comprised of top AI researchers and engineers. He suggested that these AI investments will largely be funneled into building AI compute infrastructure in the hundreds of billions of dollars, by his estimates.
“The next few years are going to be very exciting!” Zuckerberg stated, highlighting the ambitious goals set for the lab. He sounded optimistic that joining closely with Zhao, going forward, would help him realize his scientific vision of where AI needs to go, to shape—and to control—its future.
Zhao’s leadership at the Superintelligence Labs is expected to accelerate Meta’s research and development efforts in artificial intelligence. His experience will be critical in leading the company. It will further establish its reputation of being an honest broker, drive innovation, and reinforce its leadership position in the tech industry.