Meta Launches AI Superintelligence Labs, Poaches Top Talent from Rivals

Meta, under the leadership of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has launched a new AI research division called Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). This move is part of a broader strategy to consolidate Meta's AI efforts and attract top talent from rival firms, including OpenAI and Google DeepMind.

The new team is led by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, who now serves as Meta’s Chief AI Officer. He co-leads the division with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, who oversees AI product development and applied research. The team includes several high-profile AI researchers, such as Daniel Gross, co-founder and CEO of Safe Superintelligence (SSI); former DeepMind researchers Jack Rae and Pei Sun; and several researchers from OpenAI, including Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren, as well as Joel Pobar, an Anthropic engineer and Meta veteran, and Google Fellow, Johan Schalkwyk.

Zuckerberg expressed his commitment to leading the way in AI development, stating that "as the pace of AI progress accelerates, developing superintelligence is coming into sight. I believe this will be the beginning of a new era for humanity, and I am fully committed to doing what it takes for Meta to lead the way."

Meta's aggressive recruitment of AI researchers from rival firms has sparked outrage at OpenAI. OpenAI's chief research officer, Mark Chen, described the poaching as akin to someone "breaking into our home and stealing something." In response, OpenAI has given employees the week off to recover from the frenzy of rumors surrounding the talent war and is working to prevent further departures by "recalibrating compensation" and collaborating with leadership "around the clock" to retain employees.

Chen also accused Meta of stoking a fear of missing out by offering "exploding" bonuses that require quick decisions. He encouraged staff to reach out for support if they felt pressured by recruiters during a scheduled companywide "recharge" week.

Zuckerberg's memo today says that Meta is consolidating its AI efforts under the MSL umbrella, bringing together its foundational model teams, product applications, the FAIR research group, and a new lab focused on developing next-generation AI models. He also mentioned that he has spent the past few months meeting top folks across Meta, other AI labs, and promising startups to put together the founding group for this small talent-dense effort.

Chen tried to reframe the battle as a distraction, stating that "the skirmishes with Meta are the side quest. The real prize is general intelligence." However, the battle for AI talent could redraw the map, as the best minds in AI are no longer tethered to ideology or loyalty—they’re following the money, the compute, and increasingly, the chance to define the future.