Meta is splitting its AI division into four groups: research, superintelligence, products, and infrastructure. The company made a wave of high-profile, high-compensation hires for the Superintelligence Lab, including at least one $1 billion signing bonus and recruits from OpenAI, Apple, and Google DeepMind. Several longtime leaders have departed amid the shakeup, and leadership roles are being assigned to some of the new hires. The restructuring could amount to a downsizing of the AI division, though the decision remains unfinalized. The move echoes a previous major shift toward the metaverse that led to heavy investment followed by stalled efforts and layoffs.
As the New York Times reports based on insider sources, Meta has announced internally that it will be splitting its AI division into four separate groups: one focused on research, one on so-called "superintelligence," one on products, and another on infrastructure. First leaked in part to The Information, this shakeup follows a string of high-profile and even more highly-paid hires for Zuckerberg's Superintelligence Lab, at least one of whom was offered a whopping $1 billion signing bonus.
A huge investment in a buzzy new tech followed by an epic crash out would be extremely on brand for Zuckerberg, who went so hard on the idea of a virtual reality "metaverse" a few years ago that he renamed the entire company from Facebook to Meta in 2021. Those VR efforts have largely stalled since those salad days, with the company subsequently laying off many of the people originally tasked with building it.
Collection
[
|
...
]