Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, has spent the past few months shaking up his company's artificial intelligence efforts. Now he has taken further action that may compound internal turmoil over the technology.
The reorganization is likely to be the final one for some time, the people said. The moves are aimed at better organizing Meta so it can get to its goal of superintelligence and develop AI products more quickly to compete with others, the people said.
Some AI executives are expected to leave, the people said. Meta is also looking at downsizing the AI division overall -- which could include eliminating roles or moving employees to other parts of the company -- because it has grown to thousands of people in recent years, the people said. Discussions remain fluid, and no final decisions have been made on the downsizing, they said.
In what would be a shift from Meta using only its own technology to power its AI products, the company is also actively exploring using third-party AI models to do so, the people said. That could include building on other "open-source" AI models, which are freely available, or licensing "closed-source" models from other companies.
The changes follow months of tumult and restructuring at Meta over its AI strategy. Zuckerberg, 41, is sparing no expense and is willing to upend his company to stay relevant in AI as the push to create the most advanced technology has boiled down to a few key players. How Meta will fare is being closely watched, as the AI race creates new winners and losers.
Zuckerberg's determination was evident in June after Meta struggled to advance its newest AI models. That month, the company announced a superintelligence lab dedicated to creating an AI more powerful than the human brain. Meta invested $14.3 billion in the startup Scale AI and brought on Alexandr Wang, its CEO, as its new chief AI officer. Meta also offered some nine-figure pay packages to hire researchers from rivals like OpenAI and Google, igniting a Silicon Valley poaching war.
In an investor call last month, Zuckerberg said he was betting on superintelligence to usher in "a new era of individual empowerment," adding that AI has already improved Meta's core advertising business. The company said its capital expenditures could be as much as $72 billion this year, most of which would go toward building data centers and hiring AI researchers.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment. Some details of the restructuring were previously reported by The Information.
Since Zuckerberg created the superintelligence team under Wang, tensions have surfaced. Wang's team is focused on creating the company's most powerful AI model, known as a "frontier model," two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The new team has discussed making Meta's next AI model "closed," which would be a major departure from the company's longtime philosophy of "open sourcing" its models. A closed model keeps its underlying technology secret, while an open-source AI model can be built upon by other developers.
The new team has chosen to abandon Meta's previous frontier model, called Behemoth, and start from scratch on a new model, the people said. Behemoth's release was delayed in the spring after disappointing performance tests, one person said.
As Meta has spent billions to bring in AI talent, some members of the old guard have chafed at the new hires, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
In July, Meta named Shengjia Zhao, an OpenAI researcher and co-creator of its ChatGPT chatbot, as its chief AI scientist. In recent weeks, Zhao has had a line of Meta's old AI researchers and employees outside his office, where he has questioned them about their past work while interviewing them for new roles, one person said.
Nat Friedman, the former CEO of GitHub, and Daniel Gross, who previously ran a startup called Safe Superintelligence, will lead development of new AI features under the products and applied research division, two of the people said.
There has been personnel churn. Joelle Pineau, a leading computer scientist at Meta, left the company this year and later joined Cohere, an AI startup. Angela Fan, a research scientist who worked on Meta's open source AI model known as Llama, recently left for OpenAI. Loredana Crisan, a vice president of generative AI, is also leaving the company to join software firm Figma as chief design officer, two people said.
Some longtime AI leaders have stayed put. Rob Fergus, who cofounded Meta's AI research division in 2014, will continue as day-to-day head of the company's Fundamental AI Research lab, or FAIR, the people said. The FAIR division is responsible for advancing AI technology through open-source research. Ahmad Al-Dahle and Amir Frenkel, who worked on generative AI products, are reporting to Wang and focusing on strategic AI initiatives.
The reorganization is likely to be the final one for some time, the people said. The moves are aimed at better organizing Meta so it can get to its goal of superintelligence and develop AI products more quickly to compete with others, the people said.
Some AI executives are expected to leave, the people said. Meta is also looking at downsizing the AI division overall -- which could include eliminating roles or moving employees to other parts of the company -- because it has grown to thousands of people in recent years, the people said. Discussions remain fluid, and no final decisions have been made on the downsizing, they said.
In what would be a shift from Meta using only its own technology to power its AI products, the company is also actively exploring using third-party AI models to do so, the people said. That could include building on other "open-source" AI models, which are freely available, or licensing "closed-source" models from other companies.
The changes follow months of tumult and restructuring at Meta over its AI strategy. Zuckerberg, 41, is sparing no expense and is willing to upend his company to stay relevant in AI as the push to create the most advanced technology has boiled down to a few key players. How Meta will fare is being closely watched, as the AI race creates new winners and losers.
Zuckerberg's determination was evident in June after Meta struggled to advance its newest AI models. That month, the company announced a superintelligence lab dedicated to creating an AI more powerful than the human brain. Meta invested $14.3 billion in the startup Scale AI and brought on Alexandr Wang, its CEO, as its new chief AI officer. Meta also offered some nine-figure pay packages to hire researchers from rivals like OpenAI and Google, igniting a Silicon Valley poaching war.
In an investor call last month, Zuckerberg said he was betting on superintelligence to usher in "a new era of individual empowerment," adding that AI has already improved Meta's core advertising business. The company said its capital expenditures could be as much as $72 billion this year, most of which would go toward building data centers and hiring AI researchers.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment. Some details of the restructuring were previously reported by The Information.
Since Zuckerberg created the superintelligence team under Wang, tensions have surfaced. Wang's team is focused on creating the company's most powerful AI model, known as a "frontier model," two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The new team has discussed making Meta's next AI model "closed," which would be a major departure from the company's longtime philosophy of "open sourcing" its models. A closed model keeps its underlying technology secret, while an open-source AI model can be built upon by other developers.
The new team has chosen to abandon Meta's previous frontier model, called Behemoth, and start from scratch on a new model, the people said. Behemoth's release was delayed in the spring after disappointing performance tests, one person said.
As Meta has spent billions to bring in AI talent, some members of the old guard have chafed at the new hires, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
In July, Meta named Shengjia Zhao, an OpenAI researcher and co-creator of its ChatGPT chatbot, as its chief AI scientist. In recent weeks, Zhao has had a line of Meta's old AI researchers and employees outside his office, where he has questioned them about their past work while interviewing them for new roles, one person said.
Nat Friedman, the former CEO of GitHub, and Daniel Gross, who previously ran a startup called Safe Superintelligence, will lead development of new AI features under the products and applied research division, two of the people said.
There has been personnel churn. Joelle Pineau, a leading computer scientist at Meta, left the company this year and later joined Cohere, an AI startup. Angela Fan, a research scientist who worked on Meta's open source AI model known as Llama, recently left for OpenAI. Loredana Crisan, a vice president of generative AI, is also leaving the company to join software firm Figma as chief design officer, two people said.
Some longtime AI leaders have stayed put. Rob Fergus, who cofounded Meta's AI research division in 2014, will continue as day-to-day head of the company's Fundamental AI Research lab, or FAIR, the people said. The FAIR division is responsible for advancing AI technology through open-source research. Ahmad Al-Dahle and Amir Frenkel, who worked on generative AI products, are reporting to Wang and focusing on strategic AI initiatives.
