Tech Desk 
Jul 26, 2025
In a major move, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed on Friday that a former OpenAI employee and well-known researcher, Shengjia Zhao, will take over as Chief Scientist at Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the company's newest artificial intelligence division.
Zhao's hiring demonstrates Meta's dedication to enhancing its AI capabilities and taking on market leaders like Google and OpenAI.
Zuckerberg claims that Zhao was instrumental in the creation of a number of groundbreaking AI models, such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, and OpenAI's first AI reasoning model, o1.
In a Threads post, Zuckerberg said: "I'm thrilled to announce that Shengjia Zhao will be the Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs. Shengjia has been our lead scientist since the beginning and was a co-founder of the new lab. We have made the decision to formally establish his leadership role now that our hiring process is proceeding smoothly and our team is coming together."
Additionally, under the direction of the former CEO of Scale AI, Alexandr Wang, Zhao will be in charge of establishing the research agenda for MSL in his capacity as Chief Scientist.
However, Wang's appointment to head the new unit was seen as unusual, considering his lack of experience in research. But with Zhao in charge, the leadership group is now in a strong position to promote innovation in the industry.
In reference to his work on OpenAI's o1 reasoning model, Zuckerberg said that Zhao has pioneered a number of innovations, including a "new scaling paradigm."
Given Meta's present lack of presence in this field, MSL's emphasis on AI reasoning models is a calculated move.
Moreover, researchers from the unit will have access to Meta's extensive cloud computing infrastructure, which includes Prometheus, a 1-gigawatt cloud computing cluster that is expected to be completed in Ohio by 2026.
This development coincides with Meta reportedly providing top researchers with generous compensation packages as it continues to make significant investments in its AI capabilities.
Additionally, the business has been aggressively seeking talent from top players in the market, such as Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and OpenAI.
Now, Meta has two chief AI scientists, Shengjia Zhao and Yann LeCun, who oversee two separate departments: Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) and Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab. MSL concentrates on short-term AI applications, while FAIR investigates long-term research.
Meta is in a position to make major advancements in the field and possibly change the AI landscape as its AI units start to take shape.
