Meta is going deeper into the race for AI. On Thursday, the tech company revealed a huge $14.3 billion investment to open a new artificial intelligence lab dedicated to just one mission: creating superintelligence.
This is not just another upgrade. Mark Zuckerberg is wagering the future of Meta on something larger than artificial general intelligence (AGI). Superintelligence, which is loosely defined, means machines that are superior to the human brain. That is the aspiration now ringing through Silicon Valley.
New Face, New Focus
At the helm of the lab is Alexandr Wang, Scale AI CEO. Meta lured him in with an investment package, indicative of how seriously the company is taking things. To complete the roster, Meta is dishing out breathtaking levels of compensation — some packages were reportedly up to $100 million!
But the question still stands: what exactly does a superintelligence lab do?
Nobody has constructed a superintelligence yet. Ex-OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever recently started a company named Safe Superintelligence. It will develop the tech behind closed doors and only release it if they consider it safe.
AGI: Near or Not
There’s no consensus on when AGI — let alone superintelligence — will arrive. Some tech leaders, like OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, claim it’s just a couple of years away. But others aren’t so sure.
AI technology is improving, but recent research indicates its accuracy drops when solving complex problems. “These tools are strong,” offered ASU professor Subbarao Kambhampati. “But we’re not close to AGI. You still need a human in the loop.”
Meta’s AI Legacy and Shortfalls
Meta is not new to AI. It opened its first lab in 2013 after being beaten in the DeepMind race by Google. It then developed a robust foundation under Yann LeCun, the father of neural networks.
But its new AI model, Llama 4, was disappointing. Competitors in the meantime are piling on speed. In order to remain relevant, Meta requires more than tools — it requires talent, stability, and a new story.
Why “Superintelligence”?
Meta’s hope is that the flashy label will draw top talent. But some researchers view it as marketing rather than science.
Despite that, Zuckerberg is forging ahead. With a new lab and a rebrand, Meta hopes to steer the next generation of AI — one that could reshape the world, if it ever materialises.
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