Mark Zuckerberg is personally assembling a team of experts to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI) in a move to accelerate Meta’s AI development.
Bloomberg reports that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is taking a hands-on approach to accelerate the company’s AI development by personally recruiting a team of experts to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI). The secretive new team, referred to internally as the “superintelligence group,” is part of Zuckerberg’s audacious goal to outstrip other tech giants in the race to develop machines capable of performing as well as humans at many tasks.
According to people familiar with the matter, Zuckerberg aims to hire around 50 people for the new team, including a new head of AI research. The CEO has been actively involved in the recruitment process, meeting with potential candidates at his homes in Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto. To facilitate collaboration, Zuckerberg has rearranged desks at Meta’s Menlo Park headquarters so that the new staff will sit near him.
The formation of the superintelligence group comes in tandem with Meta’s planned multi-billion dollar investment in Scale AI, a startup that offers data services to help companies train their AI models. Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang is expected to join the superintelligence group once the deal is finalized. This investment is set to become Meta’s largest external investment to date, underscoring the company’s commitment to advancing its AI capabilities.
Zuckerberg’s increased involvement in AI development is reportedly driven, in part, by his frustration over the quality and response to Llama 4, the latest version of Meta’s large language model designed to power chatbots and other services. Despite the company’s efforts to deliver the best AI offering by the end of the year, the latest release in April fell short of expectations, leading to disappointment both internally and externally.
These setbacks have prompted Zuckerberg to take a more active role in shaping Meta’s AI strategy. He has been compiling his own list of potential recruits and prefers to be the first point of contact during outreach. By assembling a dedicated team of experts, Zuckerberg hopes to see improvements in Meta’s Llama models and the development of better AI tools for voice and personalization features.
Breitbart News previously reported that Zuckerberg has a wide range of interests for the future of AI, including Americans having AI-generated “friends” to chat with on social media:
Zuckerberg claims that the average American “has fewer than three friends — three people they consider friends — and the average person has demand for, I think it’s something like 15 friends.”
“The average person wants more connection than they have,” the Meta CEO said, before acknowledging the public’s concern around AI, as they wonder, “Is this going to replace in-person connections or real-life connections?”
“And my default is: Probably no,” Zuckerberg said. “I think there are all these things that are better about physical connections when you can have them, but the reality is that people just don’t have the connections, and they feel more alone a lot of the time than they would like.”
The billionaire added that he believes “a lot of these things” about AI that “might be” stigmatized will eventually get worked out “over time,” and people will realize that those who use AI for these types of connections “are rational for doing it” and “actually adding value to their lives.”
Read more at Bloomberg here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
