&w=3840&q=100)
Meta appoints former OpenAI researcher to lead superintelligence AI group
Zhao was part of the team behind the original version of OpenAI's popular chatbot, ChatGPT. He will help lead Meta's high-profile group, which is aiming to build new AI models that can perform tasks as well as or better than humans. Zhao will report to Alexandr Wang, the former chief executive officer of Scale AI who also joined Meta in June as Chief AI Officer.
Meta has been spending aggressively to recruit AI experts to develop new models and keep pace with rivals like OpenAI and Google in the race for AI dominance. The company has been looking for a chief scientist for the group for months. Zhao is one of more than a dozen former OpenAI employees who have joined Meta's AI unit in the past two months.
'Shengjia co-founded the new lab and has been our lead scientist from day one,' Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, wrote in a post announcing the news on Threads. 'Now that our recruiting is going well and our team is coming together, we have decided to formalize his leadership role.'
Zhao was a co-author on the original ChatGPT research paper, and was also a key researcher on OpenAI's first reasoning model, o1, which has helped popularize a wave of similar so-called 'chain-of-thought' systems from labs such as DeepSeek, Google, and others. He was listed as one of over 20 'foundational researchers' on the project.
Yann LeCun, another AI researcher who has been at Meta for over a decade and holds the title of chief scientist, will continue to work at the company as chief scientist of an internal AI research group known as FAIR, according to a person familiar with the matter. He will report to Wang, they added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
'I still occupy real estate in his head': Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard takes a swipe at Elon Musk in rare interview
Martin Eberhard, Tesla's co-founder, shared insights about the company's early days. He revealed the origin of the name Tesla during a date at Disneyland. Eberhard also spoke about his strained relationship with Elon Musk. A Founding Story Often Overshadowed You Might Also Like: Was Elon Musk really a Tesla co-founder? How he became synonymous with the brand On AI and Disappointments with ChatGPT You Might Also Like: Man asked his Tesla to take him somewhere new. What happened next left even Elon Musk in splits In a rare and revealing interview with YouTuber Kim Java, Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard opened up about the early days of the electric car company—and offered some sharp commentary on Elon Musk , the man who would eventually become its most recognizable how the company got its iconic name, Eberhard shared an unexpectedly charming anecdote. 'The idea of Tesla came to me because I was thinking about the motor I wanted to use. It came to me while I was on a date with a woman who became my wife,' he said. The couple were dining at the Blue Bayou restaurant inside Disneyland, overlooking the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was there, amidst candlelight and creaky boat rides, that the name Tesla sparked to life.'Naming a company is difficult,' Eberhard reflected. 'I had thought of a lot of lame names that I didn't like.' But Tesla, a nod to the legendary inventor Nikola Tesla , struck the perfect balance between heritage and futuristic founded Tesla Motors in July 2003, long before Elon Musk entered the frame. Musk joined as an investor and became chairman of the board in 2004, later taking the reins of the company. While Musk is widely credited with catapulting Tesla into a global brand, Eberhard's foundational role is often overlooked in public erasure, however, hasn't gone unnoticed by Eberhard. In the interview, he noted with subtle but pointed sarcasm, 'I've been out of the company since the end of 2007 and yet every now and then he [Musk] decides to attack me again on some social media platform—or even on the stage at TED, he's done that—which is kind of weird.'In what seemed like a mic-drop moment, Eberhard added with a smirk: 'Somebody pointed out that I'm still occupying real estate in his head. Which is kind of funny when you think about it.'Eberhard didn't just dish on Tesla's origin story and his dynamic with Musk. He also weighed in on today's hottest tech topic—Artificial Intelligence. When asked if he uses tools like Grok or ChatGPT , he responded plainly, 'No.'He elaborated that he had 'fooled around' with the tools but found the experience 'disappointing.' According to him, ChatGPT would answer with complete confidence—even when it was wrong. 'I find this to be dangerous,' he said, emphasizing the risks of AI confidently providing incorrect information on topics the user might not fully asked whether reconciliation with Musk was ever on the cards, Eberhard shut down the possibility. 'No, I don't think so. No, I can't imagine how that would happen from either one of us. He's pretty set in his ways.'
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
How big tech plans to feed AI's voracious appetite for power
America's tech giants are masters of the digital realm. Yet as they bet stupendous sums on artificial intelligence (ai), their ambitions are facing constraints in the physical world. Shortages of chips and data-centre equipment such as transformers and switching gear mean soaring prices and lengthy waits. Just as pressing is access to energy as utilities struggle to match the demands of Silicon Valley. On July 24th President Donald Trump published an 'ai action plan' which describes America's stagnating energy capacity as a threat to the country's 'ai dominance'. How is big tech coping with a worsening power crunch? Demand is rocketing thanks to ever more ambitious AI plans by the hyperscalers—Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta—all of which rely on data centres to run their services. On July 23rd Alphabet, the owner of Google, said it would increase its capital spending for 2025 by $10bn to $85bn, taking the expected combined total for the hyperscalers to $322bn this year, up from $125bn four years ago as they splash out on bigger and more power-hungry data centres (see chart 1). Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's boss, recently unveiled project Prometheus, a cluster of such centres in Louisiana covering an area almost the size of Manhattan. Chart New facilities consume more electricity than ever. A rack of servers stuffed with AI chips requires about ten times more power than a non-ai version a few years ago. A study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that in 2023 America's data centres used 176 terawatt-hours (twh) of electricity. That is forecast to increase to between 325twh and 580twh by 2028 (see chart 2), or 7-12% of America's total consumption, with hyperscalers accounting for about half. The situation is further complicated by the shifting requirements of ai. Most of the computing power now trains AI models. As the technology is adopted more widely, more of it will be used for 'inference', when an ai system responds to a query. To speed up responses many in the industry argue that inference data centres need to be near where people are using the software. But available land and power is even harder to find near cities. Faced with a power shortage, America's tech giants are turning to 'less than ideal places', says a former executive. Many of the preferred places such as North Virginia, with favourable tax regimes and proximity to high-capacity fibre-optic cables that ferry data around, are already overloaded with data centres. Yet even the new spots, such as Hillsboro, Oregon, and Columbus, Ohio, are becoming 'capped out', explains Pat Lynch, of CBRE, a property firm. Vacancies are near an all-time low and centres due for completion in 2028 are already fully booked. Another strategy is to team up with smaller rivals. In June Google announced that it would rent data-centre capacity from CoreWeave, an ai cloud provider which has already signed a similar five-year $10bn leasing deal with Microsoft. Part of the capacity for such 'neoclouds' comes from repurposing facilities once used to mine cryptocurrencies. Tech firms are also scouring the land for fresh sources of power. Amazon Web Services planned to buy and develop a nuclear-powered data centre from Talen Energy, an electricity generator. The deal was blocked by regulators for fear of raising locals' bills. On July 15th Google announced a $3bn deal for hydro-power from a dam in Pennsylvania. Hyperscalers are also playing more of a role in directly commissioning power projects. That not only includes striking deals directly with power firms but building generation capacity at data centres, to reduce reliance on grid connections. A survey by Bloom Energy, a power provider, finds that data-centre bosses expect that 27% of facilities will have onsite power by 2030, whereas last year that share was only 1%. Google signed a $20bn deal in December with Intersect Power, a developer, to build a data centre and solar farm with battery storage. Some of the power for Meta's Prometheus project will come from natural gas extracted at the location. The hyperscalers' desperation is helping cultivate novel sources of generation. Google has an agreement with Kairos Power, a startup developing small-modular reactors (SMRs), to provide nuclear power from 2030. Amazon has invested in X-energy, another SMR startup. Google and Meta have signed deals for geothermal energy, tapping the heat from the earth's crust. Microsoft is dabbling in hydrogen fuel cells as backup power for data centres. Making the grid more flexible is another way to ensure reliable supplies of energy. Tyler Norris of Duke University says electricity systems are designed for extremes in demand. A hot and sunny morning in Texas, say, will send people rushing to the switch on air-conditioning units. If data centres agree not to use grid power at peak times by tapping batteries or using onsite generators, that can allow more to be added to the grid without over burdening it. Data-centre operators that do this could get priority in the queue for power from the grid. xai, owned by Elon Musk, participated in a flexibility programme for its data centre in Memphis. SemiAnalysis, a research outfit, argues that this helped it get faster access to electricity. The tech giants are providing support in other ways, too. Google has teamed up with ctc Global, a cable-maker, to help utilities and states upgrade transmission lines. A final strategy is to go abroad. Data centre capacity is set to soar in the Gulf countries, where big sovereign-wealth funds are bankrolling developments. Spain, with its abundant solar power, is another popular destination. Malaysia had been Asia's data-centre hotspot, thanks in part to cheap energy , though a surcharge for data centres which came into force on July 1st may put off the hyperscalers. Making the right choice is crucial. Building huge data centres can run into trouble. 'Project Stargate', led by Openai, an ai startup, and SoftBank, a giant Japanese tech investor, has reportedly hit setbacks after disagreements about power providers and site selection. Peter Freed, an executive formerly at Meta and now a consultant, notes that building highly customised data centres for training models in the middle of nowhere may prove a bad idea. 'I worry about stranded-asset risk,' he says. And as no one knows what the demand for ai will be over the next two years even the most advanced ai model might struggle to give definitive advice. To stay on top of the biggest stories in business and technology, sign up to the Bottom Line, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter.
Economic Times
2 hours ago
- Economic Times
Palo Alto Networks in talks to buy CyberArk in deal worth over $20 billion: Report
Agencies Nikesh Arora, CEO, Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks is in talks to acquire CyberArk Software in a deal that could value the Israeli cybersecurity firm at more than $20 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Shares in CyberArk rose about 13%, while Palo Alto Networks' stock fell roughly 2%. The Santa Clara, California-based company could finalise a deal for CyberArk as soon as later this week, the report said. CyberArk declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters. Palo Alto did not immediately respond. Cybersecurity deal activity has been robust in recent years as large corporations have increased spending on security tools. Google-parent Alphabet said in March it would buy Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz for about $32 billion. Rising competition among all-in-one cybersecurity platforms has reshaped the industry, making several companies attractive takeover targets for larger rivals and private equity firms. As of Monday's close, CyberArk had a market capitalization of $19.3 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
