Meta has developed plans to create a new artificial intelligence research lab dedicated to pursuing “superintelligence,” according to reporting from The New York Times. The social media giant chose 28-year-old Alexandr Wang, founder and CEO of Scale AI, to join the new lab as part of a broader reorganization of Meta’s AI efforts under CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Superintelligence refers to a hypothetical AI system that would exceed human cognitive abilities—a step beyond artificial general intelligence (AGI), which aims to match an intelligent human’s capability for learning new tasks without intensive specialized training.

However, much like AGI, superintelligence remains a nebulous term in the field. Since scientists still poorly understand the mechanics of human intelligence, and because human intelligence resists simple quantification with no single definition, identifying superintelligence when it arrives will present significant challenges.

Computers already far surpass humans in certain forms of information processing such as calculations, but this narrow superiority doesn’t qualify as superintelligence under most definitions. The pursuit assumes we’ll recognize it when we see it, despite the conceptual fuzziness.

AI researcher Dr. Margaret Mitchell told Ars Technica in April 2024 that there will “likely never be agreement on comparisons between human and machine intelligence” but predicted that “men in positions of power and influence, particularly ones with investments in AI, will declare that AI is smarter than humans” regardless of the reality.

The new lab represents Meta’s effort to remain competitive in the increasingly crowded AI race, where tech giants continue pouring billions into research and talent acquisition. Meta has reportedly offered compensation packages worth seven to nine figures to dozens of researchers from companies like OpenAI and Google, according to The New York Times, with some already agreeing to join the company.

Meta joins a growing list of tech giants making bold claims about advanced AI development. In January, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a blog post that “we are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it.” Earlier, in September 2024, Altman predicted that the AI industry might develop superintelligence “in a few thousand days.” Elon Musk made an even more aggressive prediction in April 2024, saying that AI would be “smarter than the smartest human” by “next year, within two years.”

However, these predictions faced criticism from AI researchers like Mitchell, who told Ars Technica that “intelligence… is not a single value where you can make these direct comparisons and have them mean something.”

Troubles in Meta’s AI department

Meta’s superintelligence push comes amid internal management struggles, employee departures, and several fizzling product launches (such as Llama 4) within its AI division, The New York Times noted. Zuckerberg reportedly hopes the new lab will revitalize the company’s AI strategy and secure Meta’s position alongside competitors like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

Meta’s AI research has historically been led by Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun, a Turing Award winner and neural network pioneer. LeCun’s views on AI development differ from many in Silicon Valley—he believes entirely new ideas are needed to reach AGI rather than simply scaling current technologies. It’s unclear at present if LeCun’s role will change at Meta going forward.

Meta faced intense criticism in April when outside researchers discovered that benchmarks for its new Llama AI models were designed to make the products look more capable than they actually were. According to the NYT, Zuckerberg was upset that people thought he was trying to conceal poor performance of the latest release.

Wang, Zuckerberg hopes, might hold the answer to Meta’s AI troubles. He founded Scale AI in 2016 and previously helped companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Cohere build AI technologies by providing data labeling services. Meta is reportedly in talks to invest billions of dollars in Scale AI as part of the deal that would bring Wang and other Scale AI employees to the company, according to The New York Times.

Wang’s connections in the AI industry run deep. The Scale AI founder reportedly once lived in the same house as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the NYT’s report said. In January, the two appeared together at Trump’s inauguration, and Scale AI placed an ad in The Washington Post the following day calling on Trump to increase AI investment to compete with China.