Meta Appoints ChatGPT Co-Creator Shengjia Zhao as Chief Scientist of Superintelligence Lab
by Muskan Kansay - 5 days ago - 2 min read
Meta has appointed Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT and former OpenAI research scientist, as chief scientist of its new Superintelligence Lab. This move, announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg on July 25, marks a strategic pivot for Meta as it seeks to accelerate its artificial intelligence efforts and directly challenge industry front-runners like OpenAI and Google.
Zhao joined Meta in June 2025 and is credited as a key contributor to foundational AI achievements at OpenAI, notably as a co-author of the original ChatGPT paper and for his central role in developing GPT-4, the 4.1 and o3 mini models, and the "chain-of-thought" reasoning framework. At Meta, he will lead research at the Superintelligence Lab, which operates separately from the established Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) group, still headed by deep learning pioneer Yann LeCun. LeCun now reports to Alexandr Wang, the former Scale AI CEO recruited as Meta’s Chief AI Officer.
Launched last month, the Superintelligence Lab is Meta’s dedicated unit for advancing artificial general intelligence (AGI) and oversees projects like the Llama foundational model family. Zhao’s leadership is expected to steer Meta’s shift toward more advanced reasoning models and aggressive scaling strategies—a move prompted partly by the lackluster performance of Llama 4 and the cancellation of Meta’s “Behemoth” project.
Meta’s heightened focus on AI innovation is underscored by a major recruitment drive, drawing over a dozen top researchers from OpenAI, Apple, Google, and Anthropic in recent months. Among these hires are Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Hongyu Ren, all former OpenAI researchers. Record-setting compensation packages reflect Meta’s determination to secure elite talent during this critical AI race.
Zuckerberg emphasized Zhao’s “groundbreaking advancements” and highlighted the urgency of Meta’s push toward open-sourcing advanced intelligence systems, promising, “the next few years are going to be incredibly thrilling.”