Meta had already assembled Meta Superintelligence Labs with 11 hires after Zuckerberg’s personal push to address the company’s AI shortfalls. The appointment gives that new group a defined scientific leader, rather than leaving its technical direction solely with its announced operating leadership.
Zhao becomes the chief scientist for Meta Superintelligence Labs, concentrating responsibility for its research agenda in a researcher associated with ChatGPT’s creation.
Meta gains another prominent OpenAI alumnus for the new unit, while OpenAI loses a visible former researcher to a direct frontier-AI rival.
Second-order effects
The appointment raises the signaling value of Meta’s AI organization for prospective hires: the lab now combines an announced team with a named scientific lead.
Other frontier labs will face a sharper retention challenge as Meta pairs aggressive recruiting with formal leadership roles; this follows the lab’s initial 11-hire launch.
Third-order effects
If such hires continue, frontier AI competition will increasingly be shaped by the ability of large platforms to concentrate scarce research talent inside newly autonomous lab structures.
The durable question is whether these units can preserve the startup-like operating model Meta has sought while being embedded in a large platform company; leadership appointments are an early test of that model.
The trend: Big platforms are using concentrated capital, high-profile recruits, and standalone lab identities to compete for frontier-AI research leadership.
I am very excited to take up the role of chief scientist for meta super-intelligence labs. Looking forward to building asi and aligning it to empower people with the amazing team here. Let's build!
@morqon
Morgan on x
be zuck > poaching chief scientists > for a billion dollars > literally no one says yes > maybe it's the eagle costume > fuck it > promote the guy from june > call it “formalising his role” > recruiting is going well! > dump the news on friday
@morqon
Morgan on x
zuck couldn't poach a chief scientist instead, he promoted shengjia zhao, who joined from openai in late june alongside jiahui yu, shuchao bi, and hongyu ren “now that our recruiting is going well” [image]
@signulll
@signulll on x
get someone who looks at you the way zack looks at shengjia.
@drjimfan
@drjimfan on x
Shengjia is one of the brightest, humblest, and most passionate scientists I know. We went to PhD together for 5 yrs, sitting across the hall at Stanford Gates building. Good old times. I didn't expect this, but not at all surprised either. Very bullish on MSL!
@bonegpt
Bone on x
@alexandr_wang @shengjia_zhao got him [image]
@yuchenj_uw
Yuchen Jin on x
The Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs followed me. Zuck, you know my phone number. :) [image]
@aiatmeta
@aiatmeta on x
We're excited to have @shengjia_zhao at the helm as Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs. Big things are coming! 🚀 See Mark's post: https://www.threads.com/... [image]
@marvinvonhagen
Marvin von Hagen on x
@alexandr_wang @shengjia_zhao you good bro @ylecun?
@mikeisaac
Rat King on x
more in meta talent wars — Zuckerberg poaches another researcher, shengjia zhao, over from OpenAI to be Meta's chief scientist of meta superintelligence labs [image]
@alexeheath
Alex Heath on x
This was a key role to fill but am told Zuck is not done recruiting for the new lab
@alexeheath
Alex Heath on x
👀 Meta's new chief AI scientist is @shengjia_zhao, who co-created ChatGPT and GPT-4 He'll report to @alexandr_wang and lead future model development for all of Meta https://www.threads.com/...
@alexandr_wang
Alexandr Wang on x
We are excited to announce that @shengjia_zhao will be the Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs! Shengjia is a brilliant scientist who most recently pioneered a new scaling paradigm in his research. He will lead our scientific direction for our team. Let's go 🚀 [image]
r/singularity
r on reddit
[Zuck] Just shared internally that Shengjia Zhao will be Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs! 🚀
@pfau
David Pfau on x
So now there's a Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs, but also Yann LeCun is still Chief AI Scientist for Meta. This feels like when Francis became pope, and the old pope was still just chilling in the Vatican, wandering around, doing pope stuff.
@lossdecay
Šime on x
“Zucc where are we going?” “I just... there's something I have to do...” “What's left to do? We swapped all of the senior AI positions?” “...all of them... but one...” [image]