Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday that former OpenAI researcher Shengjia Zhao will lead research efforts at the company’s new AI unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). Zhao contributed to several of OpenAI’s largest breakthroughs, including ChatGPT, GPT-4, and the company’s first AI reasoning model, o1.

Meta Platforms has appointed Shengjia Zhao, one of the co-creators of ChatGPT and GPT-4, as chief scientist of its recently launched Superintelligence Lab. The announcement was made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a Threads post on Friday, as Meta moves to bolster its capabilities in advanced artificial intelligence.

Shengjia Zhao — formerly of OpenAI — will be chief scientist at Meta's new Superintelligence Lab, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Threads on Friday. Why it matters: The company is spending billions of dollars to hire key employees as it looks to jumpstart its effort and compete with Google,