Meta appoints ChatGPT co-creator Shengjia Zhao as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Lab
Once a prominent research scientist at OpenAI, Zhao has been instrumental in the development of some of the most advanced language models in existence, including GPT-4, as well as OpenAI's lighter-weight versions, GPT-4.1 and o3.
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Meta Platforms has appointed Shengjia Zhao - co-creator of ChatGPT, GPT-4, and OpenAI's recent mini models - as the chief scientist of its newly launched Superintelligence Lab, reports suggest.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the appointment in a Threads post on Friday, calling Zhao a "co-founder of the lab" and stating that he will work closely with both him and Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang.
Once a prominent research scientist at OpenAI, Zhao has been instrumental in the development of some of the most advanced language models in existence, including GPT-4, as well as OpenAI's lighter-weight versions, GPT-4.1 and o3.
"Shengjia will set the research agenda and scientific direction for our new lab working directly with me and Alex," Zuckerberg wrote, referring to Wang, whom Meta hired from Scale AI after investing heavily in the startup.
The Superintelligence Lab, launched earlier this year, reflects Meta's strategy to consolidate efforts around its Llama models and broader goals toward achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI). It operates independently from Meta's long-standing AI division FAIR (Facebook AI Research), which is led by deep learning pioneer Yann LeCun.
Also Read: Meta's Zuckerberg aims to revolutionize AI with 'Superintelligence group', to hire 50 experts
Zhao is one of several high-profile researchers who have recently exited OpenAI for Meta, as tech giants compete for scarce top-tier AI talent. Meta has responded by offering eye-watering compensation packages and aggressively backing startups to recruit AI researchers.
Meta's broader vision, as articulated by Zuckerberg, is to build "full general intelligence" and share much of the research openly.
