Meta Platforms has officially appointed Shengjia Zhao, a renowned artificial intelligence researcher and co-creator of ChatGPT, as the chief scientist of its newly established Superintelligence Lab. This strategic move is part of Meta’s broader effort to regain its leadership in the field of AI following the underwhelming performance of its recent Llama 4 model. The announcement was made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who emphasized that Zhao would be playing a pivotal role in directing the scientific agenda and vision of the company’s most ambitious AI initiative to date.
Zhao brings with him an impressive track record from his time at OpenAI, where he was instrumental in developing several groundbreaking models such as GPT-4, the original ChatGPT, and newer lightweight versions like 4.1 and o3. He also made significant contributions in the area of synthetic data generation, a technique that is becoming increasingly important in training large-scale AI models. At Meta, Zhao will work closely with both Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang, the Chief AI Officer at Meta and former CEO of Scale AI. His responsibilities will include shaping the lab’s research strategies, guiding innovation, and helping the company push toward artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Zuckerberg confirmed that Zhao was not just a recent addition, but has been involved from the inception of the Superintelligence Lab, acting as the lead scientist and co-founder. This underscores the central role Zhao has played in designing the lab’s core mission and technical roadmap. His appointment is also seen as a significant win for Meta in the ongoing competition for top AI talent, with major tech companies now engaged in an aggressive race to recruit the world’s best minds in artificial intelligence.
The creation of the Superintelligence Lab and Zhao’s new leadership position reflect Meta’s response to falling behind in the AI race. Llama 4, the company’s latest open-source large language model, did not perform as well as expected, prompting Meta to rethink its approach. As part of this strategic shift, Meta has been offering generous compensation packages and forming collaborations with AI startups in an effort to attract elite researchers, many of whom previously worked at OpenAI or other top AI labs.
Unlike Meta’s original AI research unit FAIR (Fundamental AI Research), which is still led by AI pioneer Yann LeCun, the Superintelligence Lab has been designed to operate independently. Its primary goal is to develop foundation models that can eventually lead to AGI, which is the concept of machines possessing intelligence equal to or beyond that of humans. Zuckerberg has repeatedly stated that Meta intends to pursue “full general intelligence” and has committed to keeping the development of these technologies open-source—a controversial stance that has drawn both praise and concern from different parts of the tech community.
To support this ambitious plan, Meta has also announced massive investments into computing infrastructure, stating that it will pour “hundreds of billions of dollars” into AI-related development over the next several years. These investments are expected to fuel the training and deployment of the next generation of Llama models and other foundational tools. Zuckerberg, in his statements, has expressed optimism and excitement for what lies ahead, suggesting that the field is on the brink of major breakthroughs that could transform not just technology but society as a whole.
