Meta Platforms has appointed Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT, as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Lab, CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned on Friday, as the corporate accelerates its push into superior AI.

“On this position, Shengjia will set the analysis agenda and scientific course for our new lab working immediately with me and Alex,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads put up, referring to Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who Zuckerberg employed from startup Scale AI when Meta took a giant stake in it.

Zhao, a former analysis scientist at OpenAI, co-created ChatGPT, GPT-4 and a number of other of OpenAI’s mini fashions, together with 4.1 and o3.

He’s amongst a number of researchers who’ve moved from OpenAI to Meta in latest weeks, a part of a broader expertise arms race as Zuckerberg aggressively hires from rivals to shut the hole in superior AI. Meta has been providing a few of Silicon Valley’s most profitable pay packages and placing startup offers to draw high researchers, a technique that follows the underwhelming efficiency of its Llama 4 mannequin.

Meta launched the Superintelligence Lab lately to consolidate work on its Llama fashions and lengthy‑time period synthetic basic intelligence ambitions. Zhao is a co-founder of the lab, in line with the Threads put up, which operates individually from FAIR, Meta’s established AI analysis division led by deep studying pioneer Yann LeCun.

Zuckerberg has mentioned Meta goals to construct “full basic intelligence” and launch its work as open supply — a technique that has drawn each reward and concern inside the AI neighborhood.

© Thomson Reuters 2025