June 11 (Bloomberg) -- According to Bloomberg.Meta CEO Mark.Zuckerbergis personally assembling a team to realize the goal of "superintelligence" (superintelligence), i.e., to develop machines capable of surpassing human capabilities.
According to reports,Zuckerberg was unhappy with Meta's progress in AI, so he decided to take matters into his own handsMeta and Zuckerberg himself have not yet responded to requests for comment.
According to 1AI, Meta has developed several AI tools and plugged them into its apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp, as well as its Ray-Ban glasses and chatbots. However, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has been leading the way in the competitive AI market, while Meta's Llama AI model has suffered some recent setbacks.
Bloomberg reported Tuesday thatZuckerberg plans to hire about 50 employees, and adjusted the layout of the company's headquarters in Menlo Park to place the new AI team near its offices. Sources familiar with the matter say that Zuckerberg is personally in charge of the project because he is frustrated with the progress of Llama 4, Meta's latest large-scale language model. The New York Times also confirmed many of the details of the story, noting that Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of startup Scale AI, is also involved in the project and that Meta is considering a multi-billion dollar investment in his company.
Zuckerberg has reportedly told those involved that the project will be funded by Meta's massive advertising business. However, it's unclear how the new team will collaborate with Meta's existing AI team.
In recent years, Zuckerberg has been trying to push Meta's transformation into an AI giant with mixed results. Zuckerberg's focus in this area has intensified as rival OpenAI has made huge technological advances and secured billions of dollars in funding.
However, Zuckerberg's goal of "super intelligence" is extremely ambitious. Before AI can surpass the capabilities of the human brain, it first needs to have the ability to do everything a human can do, the so-called "general artificial intelligence". Artificial intelligence researchers are not sure when this will be realized. AGI The goal is controversial, with some arguing that it will take years, while others argue that we are still far from achieving it, if we can find a path to it at all.
Still, the current AI race is as intense as any tech war in recent years, with Meta battling rivals such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google's parent company Alphabet, as well as a host of heavily funded startups, including Elon Musk's xAI and Anthropic. Apple, while a slower starter, also announced some of its own AI developments this week.
Many tech industry leaders, including Zuckerberg, see AI as an existential threat to their businesses.Meta is attempting to differentiate itself by making Llama open-source, a free-to-use AI model designed to be the foundation for much of the world's AI (similar to Android in AI).
Google sees AI as a major threat to its search business: if people can ask AI models questions directly for answers, then the need for search will decrease dramatically. Apple also realizes that AI could undermine its smartphone dominance by making apps irrelevant. While OpenAI has gained a huge head start with ChatGPT, competitors are catching up fast.