Meta names Shengjia Zhao as chief scientist of AI superintelligence unit
Menlo Park, CA – Meta Platforms has appointed Shengjia Zhao, a distinguished former OpenAI researcher, as the Chief Scientist of its newly formed Artificial Intelligence unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). The announcement, made by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday, signifies a pivotal step in the company’s ambitious pursuit of advanced AI capabilities.
Zhao brings an impressive track record from his tenure at OpenAI, where he played a foundational role in groundbreaking projects including ChatGPT, GPT-4, and the company’s pioneering AI reasoning model, o1. His expertise is expected to be instrumental in shaping the research agenda for MSL.
“I’m excited to share that Shengjia Zhao will be the Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs,” Zuckerberg stated in a Threads post. He further elaborated that Zhao co-founded the new lab and has been its lead scientist since inception, with this formalization reflecting the successful initial recruitment and team formation.
Zhao will report to Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI, who was recently appointed to lead MSL. Wang, whose background is primarily in business rather than research, will now be complemented by Zhao’s profound scientific leadership, creating a robust executive team for the unit.
The strategic hiring of Zhao is part of Meta’s broader initiative to attract top-tier AI talent. The company has successfully recruited numerous high-profile researchers from industry leaders like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Safe Superintelligence, Apple, and Anthropic. Additionally, talent is being drawn from Meta’s existing Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab and its generative AI unit to bolster MSL’s capabilities.
Zuckerberg highlighted Zhao’s contributions, including pioneering a “new scaling paradigm,” likely referencing his work on OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model. This suggests a strong focus for MSL on developing competitive AI reasoning models, an area where Meta currently seeks to establish a stronger presence.
Reports in June from The Information had indicated Zhao’s move to Meta, along with other influential OpenAI researchers such as Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Hongyu Ren. Meta has also secured Trapit Bansal, another OpenAI researcher who collaborated with Zhao on AI reasoning, and three multimodal specialists from OpenAI’s Zurich office.
The Meta CEO has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure MSL’s success, engaging in a comprehensive recruiting drive that included personal emails to researchers and invitations to his Lake Tahoe estate. The company has reportedly offered lucrative eight- and nine-figure compensation packages, with some being “exploding offers” designed to incentivize quick decisions, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Beyond talent acquisition, Meta is significantly expanding its cloud computing infrastructure. By 2026, MSL researchers are expected to leverage Prometheus, Meta’s 1-gigawatt cloud computing cluster in Ohio. This massive facility, capable of powering over 750,000 homes, will provide the immense computational resources necessary for training frontier AI models and solidifying Meta’s competitive stance.
With Zhao’s appointment, Meta now boasts two chief AI scientists, including Yann LeCun, who heads the FAIR lab focused on long-term AI research. While the exact interplay between Meta’s three AI units remains to be defined, the formation of MSL with a formidable leadership team underscores Meta’s commitment to rival OpenAI and Google in the race for AI superintelligence.
