In June, Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms agreed to acquire a 49% stake in artificial intelligence (AI) startup Scale AI for $14.8 billion. As part of the deal, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang assumed a top position within Meta to lead the company's new “superintelligence” labs, Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). Mr. Wang, 28, the founder of Scale AI, was installed as the public face of Mr. Zuckerberg's AI reboot. Mark Zuckerberg reportedly paid billions of dollars to bring billionaire AI genius Alexander Wang on board. But all is reportedly not well between the AI genius and his boss, Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg, 41, is said to have sparked Silicon Valley's poaching wars by backing new hires with nine-figure pay packages to poach top researchers from rival companies.The Financial Times reported that Wang personally believes CEO Mark Zuckerberg's micromanagement of the company's AI efforts is “stifling.” Wang had complained to officials that Zuckerberg's tight grip on the effort was hindering progress, the report said, citing people familiar with the situation. The report adds that rifts have begun to emerge at the executive level and tensions have been brewing between Mr. Wang and Mr. Zuckerberg for some time.According to the report, some staff at the company question whether Wang is beyond his capabilities, given that he not only lacks experience managing teams at large companies, but also has expertise in AI data services rather than as an AI researcher driving technological breakthroughs.
Alexander Wang reportedly clashes with Meta's veteran bodyguard
Incidentally, Alexander Wang's appointment to Meta has created friction over the company's fundamental approach to AI development, with his superintelligence team pushing for the company's next models to be “closed,” meaning the technology is kept secret. This is said to mark a major departure from Mehta's long-standing philosophy of open-sourcing models for other developers to build on, and some old guard are upset about the change, the Times reported.The new management team chose to abandon Meta's previous Frontier model, Behemoth. Behemoth's release was delayed last spring due to disappointing performance tests. Meta's AI division is facing a dramatic four-way split as Meta reorganizes into groups focused on research, superintelligence development, products and infrastructure, according to the report.
As a new vision and leadership took shape, several top names left the company. In recent weeks, Meta's longtime chief legal officer, Jennifer Newstead, was poached by arch-rival Apple, and its chief revenue officer, John Hegeman, also announced he was leaving to start a startup.Similarly, chief AI scientist and Turing Award winner Yann LeCun is leaving Meta to launch new AI initiatives. He reportedly made an exception in that he had to report to Mr. Wang. Another reason cited for his resignation is that his long-term research has reportedly been hit hard by recent job cuts announced at Meta.
Alexandr Wang's note on Meta's massive AI restructuring
Meta reorganized its AI team in June of this year. Most team leaders will report directly to Wang, 28, the memo said. This includes investor and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, who leads MSL's product team and was announced as MSL leader alongside Wang in June.
