Meta Appoints Ex-OpenAI Researcher Shengjia Zhao as Chief Scientist of New Superintelligence Lab

Meta names Shengjia Zhao as chief scientist of AI superintelligence unit | TechCrunch

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday that former OpenAI researcher Shengjia Zhao will lead research efforts at the company's new AI unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). Zhao contributed to several of OpenAI's largest breakthroughs, including ChatGPT, GPT-4, and the company's first AI reasoning model, o1. "I'm excited to share that Shengjia Zhao will be the Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs," Zuckerberg said in a post on Threads Friday. "Shengjia co-founded the new lab and has been our lead scientist from day one. Now that our recruiting is going well and our team is coming together, we have decided to formalize his leadership role." Zhao will set a research agenda for MSL under the leadership of Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI who was recently hired to lead the new unit. Wang, who does not have a research banckground, was viewed as a somewhat unconventional choice to lead an AL lab. The addition of Zhao, who is a reputable research leader known for developing frontier AI models, rounds out the leadership team. To further fill out the unit, Meta has hired several high-level researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Safe Superintelligence, Apple, and Anthropic, as well as pulling researchers from Meta's existing FAIR and GenAI units. Zuckerberg notes in his post that Zhao has pioneered several breakthroughs, including a "new scaling paradigm." The Meta CEO is likely referencing Zhao's work on OpenAI's reasoning model, o1, in which he is listed as a foundational contributor alongside OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. Meta currently doesn't offer a competitor to o1, so AI reasoning models are a key area of focus for MSL. The Information reported in June that Zhao would be joining Meta Superintelligence Labs, alongside three other influential OpenAI researchers, including Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Hongyu Ren. Meta has also recruited Trapit Bansal, another OpenAI researcher who worked on AI reasoning models with Zhao, as well as three employees from OpenAI's Zurich office that worked on multimodality. Zuckerberg has gone to great lengths to set MSL up for success. The Meta CEO has been on a recruiting spree to staff up his AI superintelligence labs, which has entailed sending personal emails to researchers and inviting prospects to his Lake Tahoe estate. Meta has reportedly offered some researcher eight and nine figure compensation packages, some of which are "exploding offers" that expire in a matter of days. Meta has also upped its investment in cloud computing infrastructure, which should help MSL conduct the massive training runs required to create competitive frontier AI models. By 2026, Zhao and MSL's researchers should have access to Meta's one gigawatt cloud computing cluster, Prometheus, located in Ohio. Once online, Meta will be one of the first technology companies with an AI training cluster of Prometheus' size -- one gigawatt is enough energy to power more than 750,000 homes. That should help Meta conduct the massive training runs required to create frontier AI models. With the addition of Zhao, Meta now has two chief AI scientists, including Yann LeCun, the leader of Meta's FAIR. Unlike MSL, FAIR is designed to focus on long-term AI research -- techniques that may be used five to 10 years from now. How exactly Meta's three AI units will work together remains to be seen. Nevertheless, Meta now seems to have a formidable AI leadership team to compete with OpenAI and Google.

Meta Says Open AI Hire is Superintelligence Group Chief Scientist

Mark Zuckerberg has named Shengjia Zhao, an artificial intelligence researcher who joined Meta Platforms Inc. from OpenAI in June, as the chief scientist for the social media company's new superintelligence AI group. Zhao was part of the team behind the original version of OpenAI's popular chatbot, ChatGPT. He will help lead Meta's high-profile group, which is aiming to build new AI models that can perform tasks as well as or better than humans. Zhao will report to Alexandr Wang, the former chief executive officer of Scale AI who also joined Meta in June as Chief AI Officer.

Meta names ChatGPT co-creator as chief scientist of Superintelligence Lab

NEW YORK, July 25 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab has appointed Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT, as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Lab, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday, as the company accelerates its push into advanced AI. "In this role, Shengjia will set the research agenda and scientific direction for our new lab working directly with me and Alex," Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post, referring to Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who Zuckerberg hired from startup Scale AI when Meta took a big stake in it. Zhao, a former research scientist at OpenAI, co-created ChatGPT, GPT-4 and several of OpenAI's mini models, including 4.1 and o3. He is among several researchers who have moved from OpenAI to Meta in recent weeks, part of a broader talent arms race as Zuckerberg aggressively hires from rivals to close the gap in advanced AI. Meta has been offering some of Silicon Valley's most lucrative pay packages and striking startup deals to attract top researchers, a strategy that follows the underwhelming performance of its Llama 4 model. Meta launched the Superintelligence Lab recently to consolidate work on its Llama models and long‑term artificial general intelligence ambitions. Zhao is a co-founder of the lab, according to the Threads post, which operates separately from FAIR, Meta's established AI research division led by deep learning pioneer Yann LeCun. Zuckerberg has said Meta aims to build "full general intelligence" and release its work as open source -- a strategy that has drawn both praise and concern within the AI community. Reporting by Echo Wang in New York Editing by Rod Nickel Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Artificial Intelligence Echo Wang Thomson Reuters Echo Wang is a correspondent at Reuters covering U.S. equity capital markets, and the intersection of Chinese business in the U.S, breaking news from U.S. crackdown on TikTok and Grindr, to restrictions Chinese companies face in listing in New York. She was the Reuters' Reporter of the Year in 2020.

Mark Zuckerberg names ex-OpenAI employee chief scientist of new Meta AI lab

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech during the Meta Connect annual event, at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday said Shengjia Zhao, the co-creator of OpenAI's ChatGPT, will serve as the chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs. Zuckerberg has been on a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence hiring blitz in recent weeks, highlighted by a $14 billion investment in Scale AI. In June, Zuckerberg announced a new organization called Meta Superintelligence Labs that's made up of top AI researchers and engineers. Zhao's name was listed among other new hires in the June memo, but Zuckerberg said Friday that Zhao co-founded the lab and "has been our lead scientist from day one." Zhao will work directly with Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI who is acting as Meta's chief AI officer. "Shengjia has already pioneered several breakthroughs including a new scaling paradigm and distinguished himself as a leader in the field," Zuckerberg wrote in a social media post. "I'm looking forward to working closely with him to advance his scientific vision."

Shengjia Zhao -- formerly of OpenAI -- will be chief scientist at Meta's new Superintelligence Lab

What they're saying: "In this role, Shengjia will set the research agenda and scientific direction for our new lab working directly with me and Alex," Zuckerberg wrote on Threads, presumably meaning former Scale CEO Alexandr Wang. Catch-up quick: In addition to individual pay packages reportedly worth up to hundreds of millions of dollars per person in some cases, the company is investing $14.3 billion to take a 49% stake in Scale AI and hire Wang. * The company has been poaching talent from across the industry, nabbing key folks from Apple, OpenAI and Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence. * From Apple, Meta grabbed AI experts Mark Lee and Tom Gunter, after hiring their boss Ruoming Pang, former head of Apple's LLM team, Bloomberg reported. * Meta also hired Tianhe Yu, Cosmo Du and Weiyue Wang, three of the engineers that worked on the Gemini model that achieved gold medal performance at last week's International Mathematical Olympiad, right after the results were announced, per The Information. Between the lines: Hiring talent is just one part of the equation, of course. * "We're also going to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into compute to build superintelligence," Zuckerberg said in a July 14 Threads post. "We have the capital from our business to do this." This story is breaking news and will be updated.

Meta announces its Superintelligence Labs Chief Scientist: former OpenAI GPT-4 co-creator Shengjia Zhao

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now Meta has appointed Shengjia Zhao, a former OpenAI researcher and co‑creator of GPT‑4, as the Chief Scientist of its newly created Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). The announcement was made Friday by Mark Zuckerberg on Threads, noting Zhao will lead the lab's scientific agenda alongside him and Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI who Meta recently brought onboard as Chief AI Officer. "I am very excited to take up the role of chief scientist for meta super-intelligence labs. Looking forward to building asi [artificial superintelligence] and aligning it to empower people with the amazing team here. Let's build!" Zhao wrote in his own Threads post. "Artificial superintelligence" is a nebulous term used in the AI industry to describe systems more powerful and capable than any today, beyond even the smartest humans, making them difficult to control. Zhao's strong commercial AI background Zhao, who previously worked at OpenAI, played a key role in the development of foundational models like GPT-4 and GPT-4o, according to arXiv system cards and research papers listing him as a co-author. He's also known for his academic work on generative models and fair representations, with widely cited papers in venues like NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR. Zhao joins Meta amid a high-stakes hiring blitz across the AI industry. Over the past few months, Meta has poached researchers from OpenAI, Apple, Google, and Anthropic as part of a multibillion-dollar bet on superintelligence as CNN reported. Meta recently invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI, acquiring a 49% stake and bringing on Wang to lead the superintelligence effort. Former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman also joined the team. The company has reportedly offered compensation packages worth as much as $100 million to $300 million over four years to lure top AI talent, according to multiple reports. One claim from a rival AI startup founder alleged Meta offered $1.25 billion over four years -- approximately $312 million per year -- to a single candidate who declined. Other insiders say Meta's most senior AI scientists may be receiving $10 million+ per year, while first-year comp for some new hires reportedly reached $100 million. Aspirations of leading the AI frontier Zuckerberg has made no secret of his ambition to make Meta a leader in AI's next frontier, repeatedly stating that the company plans to "invest hundreds of billions of dollars into compute to build superintelligence" using its own business-generated capital. He said the Llama 4 rollout underscored the importance of elite talent: "You can have hundreds of thousands of GPUs, but if you don't have the right team developing the model, it doesn't matter." Meta's fundamental AI research group (FAIR), still led by acclaimed scientist Yann LeCun, will remain separate from the new lab. The creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs signals a more product- and mission-focused arm of Meta's AI efforts, centered on building and aligning ASI with human interests. Making up for the mixed reception of Llama 4 However, Meta's push into superintelligence has come on the heels of a bumpy rollout of its latest open-source foundation models. The company released its Llama 4 model family in April 2025, positioning it as a leap forward in multimodal reasoning and long-context understanding. But the release has struggled to gain traction amid the rise of powerful Chinese open-source rivals like DeepSeek and Qwen. Meta faced public criticism from researchers and developers who cited poor real-world performance, confusion around benchmark results, and inconsistent quality across deployments. Some accused the company of "benchmark gamesmanship" and using unreleased optimized versions of Llama 4 to boost public perception -- a claim Meta has denied. Internal sources blamed fast rollout timelines and bugs for the issues, but the episode has cast a shadow over Meta's generative AI credibility just as it embarks on its most ambitious effort yet. Jim Fan, a former Stanford colleague of Zhao and now Nvidia's Director of Robotics and Distinguished Scientist, offered his endorsement on X: "Shengjia is one of the brightest, humblest, and most passionate scientists I know. Very bullish on MSL!" The move underscores Meta's strategy of spending aggressively now to secure a dominant position in what it views as the next foundational technology platform -- one that could eclipse the mobile internet. As Zuckerberg sees it, ASI isn't a moonshot -- it's the next frontier, and Meta intends to lead.

Meta Names ChatGPT Co-Creator as Chief Scientist of Superintelligence Lab

Meta has hired several researchers from OpenAI in recent weeks Meta Platforms has appointed Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT, as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Lab, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday, as the company accelerates its push into advanced AI. "In this role, Shengjia will set the research agenda and scientific direction for our new lab working directly with me and Alex," Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post, referring to Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who Zuckerberg hired from startup Scale AI when Meta took a big stake in it. Zhao, a former research scientist at OpenAI, co-created ChatGPT, GPT-4 and several of OpenAI's mini models, including 4.1 and o3. He is among several researchers who have moved from OpenAI to Meta in recent weeks, part of a broader talent arms race as Zuckerberg aggressively hires from rivals to close the gap in advanced AI. Meta has been offering some of Silicon Valley's most lucrative pay packages and striking startup deals to attract top researchers, a strategy that follows the underwhelming performance of its Llama 4 model. Meta launched the Superintelligence Lab recently to consolidate work on its Llama models and long‑term artificial general intelligence ambitions. Zhao is a co-founder of the lab, according to the Threads post, which operates separately from FAIR, Meta's established AI research division led by deep learning pioneer Yann LeCun. Zuckerberg has said Meta aims to build "full general intelligence" and release its work as open source -- a strategy that has drawn both praise and concern within the AI community.

Meta names former OpenAI researcher Shengjia Zhao as Chief scientist for superintelligence lab

Meta Platforms has appointed Shengjia Zhao, a former OpenAI researcher and co-author of the original ChatGPT paper, as the Chief Scientist of its new Superintelligence AI group, the company confirmed Friday (July 25). Zhao, who joined Meta in June, was a key contributor to OpenAI's early breakthroughs, including the development of ChatGPT and the company's first reasoning model, known as o1. The model helped set off a new wave of "chain-of-thought" AI systems adopted by companies such as Google and DeepSeek. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Zhao's formal appointment in a post on Threads, calling him "our lead scientist from day one." Zuckerberg added: "Now that our recruiting is going well and our team is coming together, we have decided to formalize his leadership role." Zhao will report to Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI, who joined Meta in June as Chief AI Officer. Wang is leading Meta's efforts in building artificial general intelligence (AGI), AI that can think and reason at or beyond human capability. The move comes amid Meta's aggressive recruitment campaign in the AI sector. Over the past two months, the company has hired more than a dozen researchers from OpenAI, Apple, Google, and Anthropic. That includes two top Apple AI scientists, Tom Gunter and Mark Lee, according to Bloomberg. Meta launched the Superintelligence Lab in June 2025 as part of its renewed focus on developing advanced AI models. The lab is separate from Meta's long-standing AI research group FAIR, which will continue to be led by Yann LeCun, who now reports to Wang. Meta's recent hires have drawn attention for the size of the compensation packages involved. Some reports suggested offers exceeding $100 million, although the company has denied rumors of higher figures, including claims of $300 million deals. Meta's current open-source model, LLaMA 4, has not yet matched the capabilities of OpenAI's GPT-4 or Google's Gemini models. The company is expected to release a more advanced model, internally codenamed "Behemoth," later this year. Zuckerberg expressed optimism about the lab's future, saying, "Together we are building an elite, talent-dense team that has the resources and long-term focus to push the frontiers of superintelligence research."

Meta names ChatGPT co-creator Shengjia Zhao as chief scientist of Superintelligence Lab - The Economic Times

Meta Platforms has appointed Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT, as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Lab, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday, as the company accelerates its push into advanced AI. "In this role, Shengjia will set the research agenda and scientific direction for our new lab working directly with me and Alex," Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post, referring to Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who Zuckerberg hired from startup Scale AI when Meta took a big stake in it. Zhao, a former research scientist at OpenAI, co-created ChatGPT, GPT-4 and several of OpenAI's mini models, including 4.1 and o3. He is among several researchers who have moved from OpenAI to Meta in recent weeks, part of a broader talent arms race as Zuckerberg aggressively hires from rivals to close the gap in advanced AI. Meta has been offering some of Silicon Valley's most lucrative pay packages and striking startup deals to attract top researchers, a strategy that follows the underwhelming performance of its Llama 4 model. Meta launched the Superintelligence Lab recently to consolidate work on its Llama models and long-term artificial general intelligence ambitions. Zhao is a co-founder of the lab, according to the Threads post, which operates separately from FAIR, Meta's established AI research division led by deep learning pioneer Yann LeCun. Zuckerberg has said Meta aims to build "full general intelligence" and release its work as open source - a strategy that has drawn both praise and concern within the AI community.

Mark Zuckerberg Names OpenAI Veteran Shengjia Zhao As Chief Scientist Of Meta Superintelligence Labs - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms Inc. META has officially named Shengjia Zhao, a former OpenAI researcher, as Chief Scientist of its newly formed Superintelligence Labs. What Happened: On Friday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Zhao's appointment on Threads, highlighting his central role in building the company's new frontier AI unit. "I'm excited to share that Shengjia Zhao will be the Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs," Zuckerberg said in a memo he shared. "Shengjia co-founded the new lab and has been our lead scientist from day one. Now that our recruiting is going well and our team is coming together, we have decided to formalize his leadership role." See Also: Meta Commits 'Hundreds Of Billions' To Build Massive AI Clusters In Race For Superintelligence Zhao previously contributed to some of OpenAI's most significant breakthroughs, including ChatGPT, GPT-4 and the "o1" reasoning model. At Meta Superintelligence Labs, Zhao will work under the leadership of Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, who was brought in to head the lab. Trending Investment OpportunitiesAdvertisementArrivedBuy shares of homes and vacation rentals for as little as $100. Get StartedWiserAdvisorGet matched with a trusted, local financial advisor for free.Get StartedPoint.comTap into your home's equity to consolidate debt or fund a renovation.Get StartedRobinhoodMove your 401k to Robinhood and get a 3% match on deposits.Get Started Why It's Important: Meta has been ramping up infrastructure support for MSL, with Zhao and his team set to gain access by 2026 to Prometheus, a 1-gigawatt cloud computing cluster located in Ohio, reported TechCrunch. With Zhao joining the team, Meta now has two top AI scientists, including Yann LeCun, who heads the company's FAIR lab. FAIR, unlike MSL, is dedicated to long-term AI research, exploring methods that could come into play over the next five to ten years. However, it remains unclear how Meta plans to coordinate its three AI divisions, the report said. Price Action: Meta shares declined by 0.30% on Friday but edged up 0.16% in after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro. Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that META continues to trend upward across short-, medium-, and long-term periods. More detailed performance data can be found here. Read Next: Cathie Wood Dumps Palantir As Stock Touches Peak Prices, Bails On Soaring Flying-Taxi Maker Archer Aviation Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com METAMeta Platforms Inc$713.80-0.14%Stock Score Locked: Edge Members Only Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Unlock RankingsEdge RankingsMomentum86.46Growth92.53Quality88.96Value27.19Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Meta names ChatGPT co-creator as chief scientist of Superintelligence Lab

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Meta Platforms has appointed Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT, as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Lab, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday, as the company accelerates its push into advanced AI. "In this role, Shengjia will set the research agenda and scientific direction for our new lab working directly with me and Alex," Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post, referring to Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who Zuckerberg hired from startup Scale AI when Meta took a big stake in it. Zhao, a former research scientist at OpenAI, co-created ChatGPT, GPT-4 and several of OpenAI's mini models, including 4.1 and o3. He is among several researchers who have moved from OpenAI to Meta in recent weeks, part of a broader talent arms race as Zuckerberg aggressively hires from rivals to close the gap in advanced AI. Meta has been offering some of Silicon Valley's most lucrative pay packages and striking startup deals to attract top researchers, a strategy that follows the underwhelming performance of its Llama 4 model. Meta launched the Superintelligence Lab recently to consolidate work on its Llama models and long-term artificial general intelligence ambitions. Zhao is a co-founder of the lab, according to the Threads post, which operates separately from FAIR, Meta's established AI research division led by deep learning pioneer Yann LeCun. Zuckerberg has said Meta aims to build "full general intelligence" and release its work as open source -- a strategy that has drawn both praise and concern within the AI community. (Reporting by Echo Wang in New YorkEditing by Rod Nickel)