Zuckerberg accelerates in the AI race: Meta-fishing with Apple to develop artificial superintelligence
The US technology sector is experiencing increased competition in AI development. The fight between firms is expanding : they are no longer just competing to offer the best product or application, but also to secure the services of the most highly trained professionals. Meta has hired a top Apple engineer to strengthen a new department dedicated to developing artificial superintelligence .
Meta has once again shaken up the US technology sector. Amid a push for AI development, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has hired one of Apple's most prominent employees. Meta has thus acquired the services of Ruoming Pang , who until now headed the AI modeling department at the technology company founded by Steve Jobs. The goal is for Pang to join a department dedicated to developing " superintelligence ," that is, AI-based software with intelligence superior to that of humans.
Pang's responsibilities include coordinating the team that trained the AI models used in Apple Intelligence , the American firm's personal artificial intelligence platform. Despite the work done, Apple's AI models have not kept pace with the development of similar tools from other rival firms in the sector. In fact, Apple is planning to use AI models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic to improve the capabilities of Siri, its virtual assistant.
Thus, the truth is that Apple's AI problems have coincided with sales difficulties for its flagship iPhone in key markets like China. This is an obstacle the company managed to overcome in its latest quarterly results , although the problems have spread to other departments such as wearables.
In any case, the role of Pang, who joined the firm in 2021 after leaving Alphabet, does not seem to have been one of the problems, in light of the contract that Meta has offered him: the firm has offered him tens of millions of dollars a year. Zuckerberg's company follows a similar pattern employed in the hiring of Alexandr Wang , founder of Scale AI, Nat Friedman , CEO of GitHub, and Daniel Gross , co-founder of Safe Superintelligence and director of AI projects at Apple between 2013 and 2017.
These hires will join the team responsible for coordinating work within the Superintelligence Labs (MSL) division, which will bring together the work of various groups responsible for developing different models, such as the open-source AI software Llama. Meta is strongly committed to this new unit: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI , recently stated that Meta was hiring AI engineers from his firm, offering bonuses reaching $100 million .
With this new team, Meta aims to achieve artificial superintelligence, which, according to IBM, has advanced cognitive functions and thinking skills superior to those of any human. To this end, the company appears to be reorganizing its resources, as, in parallel with its investment in AI, it announced the layoff of 5% of its workforce earlier this year.
Meta is thus seeking to make a splash in the AI space. For now, the firm has managed to strengthen its capabilities in this area thanks to the €13 billion acquisition of 49% of Scale AI , a company specializing in managing data collections for training AI models. Among this brand's clients are Microsoft, Alphabet, and Elon Musk's AI firm xAI, all of which are considering cutting ties with the company, fearing that Instagram's parent company could access sensitive data.
eleconomista
