Facebook-parent Meta in talks to hire former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman for its AI team: Report
Nat Friedman
on board, reports The Information. As per the report, the aim is to support the company's artificial intelligence efforts. The report quoted a person familiar with the matter. It said that the social media giant is also in talks with Daniel Gross—Friedman's partner at investment firm NFDG—about a potential role related to AI at Meta. Additionally, Meta is considering a partial buyout of NFDG, the report said.
These developments come as major tech firms continue to invest heavily in AI to maintain a competitive edge. Last week, Meta announced a $14.8 billion investment in Scale AI, its second-largest investment to date. The company also hired Scale AI CEO
Alexandr Wang
to lead its newly formed superintelligence unit.
Friedman currently serves on Meta's Advisory Group, an external council that offers guidance on technology and product strategy.
As mentioned above, the company hired 28-year-old Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang as Superintelligence Chief recently. Meta signed an investment of $14.3 billion in Scale AI, taking a 49% stake in a deal. Confirming the partnership, Meta said: 'We will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models, and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts.'
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Perdagangkan CFD Emas dengan Broker Tepercaya
IC Markets
Mendaftar
Undo
Sending a memo to ScaleAI employees, Wang confirmed his exit from the company. He will remain on Scale's board. Scale's Chief Strategy Officer, Jason Droege, will serve as interim CEO. Wang also told employees that a small number of Scale's 1,500 workers will join him at Meta.
Alcatel V3 Ultra Unboxing & Hands-on | Dual Display Mode, Sleek Design & More!
AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
39 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Meta faces Italian investigation over AI tool on WhatsApp
Italy's antitrust authority said on Wednesday it had launched an investigation into Meta Platforms over allegations it had abused its dominant position by pre-installing its artificial intelligence tool on messaging service WhatsApp. The watchdog said Meta may have violated European Union competition rules by integrating its Meta AI assistant into WhatsApp without user consent. Italian representatives from Meta were not immediately available for comment. Meta AI, which provides chatbot-style responses and virtual assistant functions, has been part of WhatsApp's interface since March 2025, and included in the app's search bar, the authority said. The regulator said inclusion could unfairly steer users toward Meta's AI services, potentially harming competitors and locking users into the platform.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Who is Mira Murati? Ex-OpenAI exec rejects $1 billion offer from Mark Zuckerberg to join Meta AI
Albanian-American tech visionary Mira Murati, who was behind some of the most significant breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, is back on spotlight. The former OpenAI CTO has reportedly rejected a lush $1 billion offer from Mark Zuckerberg's Meta. As per a report by Wired, Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines Lab was offered $1 billion by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta to join its AI Superintelligence team. 'So far at Thinking Machines Lab, not a single person has taken the offer,' Murati was quoted as saying by the outlet. According to the report, Mira Murati's team members were offered packages that ranged between $200 to $1 billion — every single one of which was rejected as employees refused to join the Meta Superintelligence Lab. Who is Mira Murati? Mira Murati, a trailblazer in the advancement of AI, was born in Albania in 1988. At the age of 16, Mira Murati received a scholarship to attend high school at Pearson United World College of the Pacific on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Also Read | Mira Murati launches Thinking Machines Lab with AI talents from OpenAI, Meta Mira Murati has two undergraduate degrees — Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Colby College and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Dartmouth College. Before joining OpenAI, Murati held various roles in pioneering companies like Goldman Sachs, Zodiac Aerospace, and Tesla. According to her LinkedIn profile, Mira Murati joined Sam Altman's OpenAI in 2018. She was named the Chief Technology Officer at OpenAI quickly, and is credited with leading key projects like ChatGPT, DALL·E, and Codex — technologies that have changed the world. Mira Murati also became a CEO of OpenAI for three days after Sam Altman was removed from the post following a boardroom drama at the company. He was reinstated five days later, following which Murati returned to her role at CTO of OpenAI. Murati, who started Thinking Machines after an abrupt exit from OpenAI last September, is among a growing list of former executives from the ChatGPT maker who have launched AI startups. Thinking Machines Lab, the artificial intelligence startup founded by former OpenAI executive Mira Murati, said earlier this month that it has raised $2 billion in funding.
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
Meta jumps on big revenue forecast beat, small capex raise
Meta Platforms forecast third-quarter revenue well ahead of Wall Street expectations on Wednesday and raised the lower end of its capital expenses forecast for the year, sending its shares up 10% in extended trading. For the third quarter, Meta said it expected total revenue of $47.5 billion to $50.5 billion, compared with analysts' average estimate of $46.17 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. The company said in a statement that its third-quarter guidance assumed a 1% benefit from a weak dollar. Meta expects both total expenses and capital expenditures to increase significantly in 2026, driven primarily by higher infrastructure costs and continued investment to support AI initiatives. "AI-driven investments into Meta's advertising business continue to pay off, bolstering its revenue as the company pours billions of dollars into AI ambitions like superintelligence," said eMarketer senior analyst Minda Smiley. "But Meta's exorbitant spending on its AI visions will continue to draw questions and scrutiny from investors who are eager to see returns." Smiley added that Meta's strong results signalled that the broader digital advertising market was not yet feeling the pain from tariffs. U.S. antitrust regulators have sued Meta to force it to restructure or sell Instagram and WhatsApp, claiming the company sought to monopolise the market for social media platforms used to share updates with friends and family. With court papers due in September, the judge overseeing the case is unlikely to rule until later this year at the earliest. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in April that the company was initially slow to recognise the competitive threat of TikTok, and that Meta has over the years tried to build many apps that never gained traction. Meta said on Wednesday that while it was not providing an outlook for fourth-quarter revenue, the company expected the year-over-year growth rate in the period to be slower than in the third quarter. The social media giant raised the lower end of its annual capital expenditures forecast by $2 billion, driven by its high-stakes push for "superintelligence" in the heated AI race. The Facebook and Instagram parent now expects capital expenditures to be between $66 billion and $72 billion. Training and deploying advanced AI systems remain a capital-intensive endeavor, requiring costly hardware, massive computing resources and top-tier engineering talent. After a lackluster reception for its Llama 4 model that led to staff departures, Meta has tried to revitalise its AI push by sparking a high-stakes talent war that has seen it dole out more than $100 million pay packages to researchers from rival firms. Zuckerberg has pledged to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build massive AI data centres, having shelled out $14.3 billion for a stake in startup Scale AI and poached its 28-year-old billionaire CEO Alexandr Wang. To fund the push, the billionaire founder is leaning on Meta's massive user base as well as AI-powered improvements in content engagement that make it a stable bet for advertisers even in times of economic uncertainty. The tech giant recently introduced an AI-driven image-to-video ad creation tool under its Advantage+ suite, allowing marketers to generate video ads from static images. Instagram, whose Reels product competes with ByteDance's TikTok and YouTube Shorts for ad dollars in the popular short video format, is set to account for more than half of Meta's ad revenue in the U.S. this year, according to research firm eMarketer. Meta has also accelerated efforts to monetise its social media platforms WhatsApp and Threads by integrating ads. The company last month named insider Connor Hayes as head of Threads, a sign it was moving the platform away from Instagram's shadow after leaning on the photo-sharing app for growth.
