Meta Is Betting Its Future on ‘Personal Superintelligence.’ Here’s What That Means.

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Courtesy Meta)

Meta Platforms stock is surging on the back of the company’s successful integration of artificial intelligence into its social-media platforms. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg has laid out a grander vision of making “personal superintelligence” available to everyone.

Here’s what you need to know about Meta’s plans and what it means for the stock.

What Is ‘Superintelligence’

“Over the last few months we have begun to see glimpses of our AI systems improving themselves. The improvement is slow for now, but undeniable. Developing superintelligence is now in sight,” wrote Zuckerberg in a letter published Wednesday alongside the company’s earnings report.

When experts can hardly agree on what makes an AI truly intelligent, it is inevitably divisive as to what constitutes “superintelligence.” But broadly it means technology which can perform any intellectual task at least as well as the best human. Zuckerberg’s letter also indicates such a system is likely to need to be self-improving.

Meta’s own Llama AI models don’t fit that definition. They appear to be slightly behind rival technology from the likes of Alphabet’s Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic, according to multiple rankings compiled by research institute Epoch AI.

Zuckerberg has therefore gone on a recruitment spree for AI developers for a new division named Superintelligence Labs to develop the next generation of models. The unit is led by Alexandr Wang, formerly founder of Scale AI, a data-labeling start-up of which Meta acquired a 49% share for $14 billion.

Why Is It ‘Personal’

Zuckerberg’s vision is that a superhuman AI should act as a personal assistant. While virtual assistants such as Apple Siri or Amazon.com Alexa already exist, they have limited capabilities.

“Personal superintelligence that knows us deeply, understands our goals, and can help us achieve them will be by far the most useful,” wrote Zuckerberg in a memo Thursday.

The Meta boss has a reason to think his company has an advantage in developing such technology, because his company has the breakout hit in AI-equipped hardware —its Ray Ban Meta smart glasses, developed in partnership with eyewear company EssilorLuxottica. Now rebranded as “AI glasses,” they have sold more than two million pairs since their launch in October 2023.

“Personal devices like glasses that understand our context because they can see what we see, hear what we hear, and interact with us throughout the day will become our primary computing devices,” Zuckerberg wrote.

An AI assistant which can see and experience everything the user does via a pair of smart glasses could eventually help Meta’s hardware supplant the smartphone—so long as users are comfortable with a virtual superintelligence constantly accompanying them.

How Much Will It Cost

Currently Meta’s approach to AI models has been to release them as free open-source software, which means they can be used, modified, and shared. It looks like that might be set to change in the future.

“Superintelligence will raise novel safety concerns. We’ll need to be rigorous about mitigating these risks and careful about what we choose to open source,” Zuckerberg wrote.

While framed around safety, it’s hard to believe that the Meta boss isn’t thinking about how the company will make money. While it is generating impressive revenue from AI-enhanced advertising, a “personal superintelligence” would open up huge new business opportunities in hardware and subscription revenue.

New revenue sources might be needed to defray the infrastructure and employee costs of developing such technology. Analysts at J.P. Morgan estimate Meta’s capital expenditure will rise to around $100 billion next year, from a stated range of $66 billion to $72 billion this year.

Will it work out? Zuckerberg’s previous big idea of the Metaverse—a virtual world which would largely replace the physical world for work and leisure—has largely fallen by the wayside. The company also faces fierce competition to develop the best AI.

But Meta also has a hardware platform in smart glasses and a team of some of the best AI researchers in the world. Even if the end result isn’t quite HAL 9000, there could still be something big in its future.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com