Meta Hires ChatGPT Co-Creator Shengjia Zhao to Lead Superintelligence Lab

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) has appointed Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT, as chief scientist of its newly launched Superintelligence Lab, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday. The move highlights Meta’s accelerating push into advanced artificial intelligence and its ambition to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Zhao, formerly a research scientist at OpenAI, co-developed ChatGPT, GPT‑4, and OpenAI’s mini models, including 4.1 and o3. He joins Meta amid a wave of high-profile hires from OpenAI and other rivals as tech giants compete for top AI talent.

In a Threads post, Zuckerberg said Zhao will define the lab’s research agenda and work closely with him and Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who joined from Scale AI earlier this year. The Superintelligence Lab, which Zhao co-founded, operates separately from Meta’s existing AI research unit, FAIR, led by deep learning pioneer Yann LeCun.

Meta recently consolidated its Llama model development and long-term AGI efforts under the new lab. The company aims to build “full general intelligence” and release its work as open source — a strategy praised for fostering transparency but criticized for potential security risks.

The hiring reflects Meta’s aggressive AI strategy following mixed reviews of its Llama 4 model. To close the gap with rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic, Meta has offered lucrative compensation packages and struck partnerships with AI startups to accelerate progress.

Zhao’s appointment underscores the intensifying AI talent race in Silicon Valley, as major players vie to lead the next era of generative AI and superintelligence research.