Meta AI News & Updates

Meta Invests $14.3 Billion in Scale AI for 49% Stake, CEO Joins Meta's Superintelligence Efforts

Meta has invested approximately $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in data-labeling company Scale AI, valuing the startup at $29 billion. Scale AI's co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang is joining Meta to work on the company's superintelligence efforts, while Scale AI remains an independent entity with Jason Droege as interim CEO.

Meta Invests $15B in Scale AI and Forms New Superintelligence Lab

Meta is reportedly investing nearly $15 billion in data labeling firm Scale AI, taking a 49% stake and bringing CEO Alexandr Wang to lead a new "superintelligence" lab. The move comes as Meta struggles to compete with rivals like OpenAI and Google, following disappointments with its Llama 4 models and significant talent attrition to other AI labs. The deal aims to address Meta's data innovation challenges and accelerate its AI capabilities development.

Meta Releases V-JEPA 2 World Model for Enhanced AI Physical Understanding

Meta unveiled V-JEPA 2, an advanced "world model" AI system trained on over one million hours of video to help AI agents understand and predict physical world interactions. The model enables robots to make common-sense predictions about physics and object interactions, such as predicting how a ball will bounce or what actions to take when cooking. Meta claims V-JEPA 2 is 30x faster than Nvidia's competing Cosmos model and could enable real-world AI agents to perform household tasks without requiring massive amounts of robotic training data.

Meta Establishes Dedicated Superintelligence Research Lab with Scale AI Partnership

Meta is launching a new AI research lab focused on "superintelligence" and has recruited Scale AI's CEO Alexandr Wang to join the initiative. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is personally recruiting top AI talent from OpenAI and Google, aiming to build a 50-person team to compete in the race toward AGI.

Meta Considers $10+ Billion Investment in Scale AI Data Labeling Company

Meta is reportedly in talks to invest over $10 billion in Scale AI, a company that provides data labeling services for training AI models to major tech companies including Microsoft and OpenAI. This would represent Meta's largest external AI investment and one of the biggest private company funding rounds ever, as Scale AI projects revenue growth from $870 million to $2 billion this year.

Meta Automates 90% of Product Risk Assessments Using AI Systems

Meta plans to use AI-powered systems to automatically evaluate potential harms and privacy risks for up to 90% of updates to its apps like Instagram and WhatsApp, replacing human evaluators. The new system would provide instant decisions on AI-identified risks through questionnaires, allowing faster product updates but potentially creating higher risks according to former executives.

Meta Restructures AI Division Into Consumer Products and AGI Research Teams

Meta is splitting its AI department into two distinct teams: an AI products team focused on consumer-facing features across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and an AGI Foundations unit dedicated to advancing Llama models and fundamental AI research. This reorganization appears aimed at accelerating product development while maintaining competitive positioning against OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

Meta Hires Ex-Google DeepMind Director Robert Fergus to Lead FAIR Lab

Meta has appointed Robert Fergus, a former Google DeepMind research director, to lead its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab. The move comes amid challenges for FAIR, which has reportedly experienced significant researcher departures to other companies and Meta's newer GenAI group despite previously leading development of Meta's early Llama models.

Meta's Llama AI Models Reach 1.2 Billion Downloads

Meta announced that its Llama family of AI models has reached 1.2 billion downloads, up from 1 billion in mid-March. The company also revealed that thousands of developers are contributing to the ecosystem, creating tens of thousands of derivative models, while Meta AI, the company's Llama-powered assistant, has reached approximately one billion users.

Meta's New AI Models Face Criticism Amid Benchmark Controversy

Meta released three new AI models (Scout, Maverick, and Behemoth) over the weekend, but the announcement was met with skepticism and accusations of benchmark tampering. Critics highlighted discrepancies between the models' public and private performance, questioning Meta's approach in the competitive AI landscape.