Meta wants to “steal brains”

NEW YORK (EFE) — Meta is moving forward with its plan to create a “superintelligence” team dedicated to building the world’s most advanced AI platform with offers to Daniel Gross, CEO of Safe Superintelligence, and Nat Friedman, former director of GitHub.

Last week, Meta announced it would pay $14.3 billion to acquire a 49% stake in AI startup Scale and hire its CEO, Alexandr Wang. As part of the deal, Wang—who seven years ago became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 21—will report to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and remain on Scale’s board of directors.

Furthermore, according to specialized media, Wang will lead a new AI lab in Meta, tasked with developing “superintelligence.”

CNBC revealed that Meta attempted to acquire artificial intelligence startup Safe Superintelligence for $32 billion, but its founder Ilya Sutskever, who launched the company a year ago shortly after leaving OpenAI, rejected the offer and the company's attempt to hire him.

However, Zuckerberg began negotiations with Gross, who, in addition to his position at Safe Superintelligence, runs a venture capital firm with Friedman called NFDG.

Meta will acquire a stake in NFDG, and both Gross and Friedman will join the firm to report to Wang.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said this week that his employees have received $100 million bonus offers from Meta to leave the company and join the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, but that "so far" none of them have accepted.

OpenAI, Google, and other technology companies have already announced their goal of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), superior to human intelligence.

At a glance

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Meta and EssilorLuxottica yesterday introduced a new line of smart glasses, the Oakley Meta HSTN, which include an AI assistant, an improved camera, and improved battery life.

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The glasses are aimed at athletes and have a starting price of $399.