After AI setbacks, Meta bets billions on undefined “superintelligence”

Meta has developed plans to create a new artificial intelligence research lab dedicated to pursuing “superintelligence,” according to reporting from The New York Times. The social media giant chose 28-year-old Alexandr Wang, founder and CEO of Scale AI, to join the new lab as part of a broader reorganization of Meta’s AI efforts under CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Superintelligence refers to a hypothetical AI system that would exceed human cognitive abilities—a step beyond artificial general intelligence (AGI), which aims to match an intelligent human’s capability for learning new tasks without intensive specialized training.

However, much like AGI, superintelligence remains a nebulous term in the field. Since scientists still poorly understand the mechanics of human intelligence, and because human intelligence resists simple quantification with no single definition, identifying superintelligence when it arrives will present significant challenges.

Computers already far surpass humans in certain forms of information processing such as calculations, but this narrow superiority doesn’t qualify as superintelligence under most definitions. The pursuit assumes we’ll recognize it when we see it, despite the conceptual fuzziness.

AI researcher Dr. Margaret Mitchell told Ars Technica in April 2024 that there will “likely never be agreement on comparisons between human and machine intelligence” but predicted that “men in positions of power and influence, particularly ones with investments in AI, will declare that AI is smarter than humans” regardless of the reality.

The new lab represents Meta’s effort to remain competitive in the increasingly crowded AI race, where tech giants continue pouring billions into research and talent acquisition. Meta has reportedly offered compensation packages worth seven to nine figures to dozens of researchers from companies like OpenAI and Google, according to The New York Times, with some already agreeing to join the company.

Meta joins a growing list of tech giants making bold claims about advanced AI development. In January, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a blog post that “we are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it.” Earlier, in September 2024, Altman predicted that the AI industry might develop superintelligence “in a few thousand days.” Elon Musk made an even more aggressive prediction in April 2024, saying that AI would be “smarter than the smartest human” by “next year, within two years.”