Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is adopting a distinctly different strategy in artificial intelligence research. In a conversation on the Rowan Cheung Podcast, he referred to the company’s newly established Superintelligence Lab as a “group science project,” highlighting collaboration, autonomy, and the lack of strict deadlines. This lab is part of Meta’s long-term initiative to create artificial general intelligence (AGI)—AI systems that can perform cognitive tasks similarly to humans—and has emerged as one of the company’s most ambitious projects. Zuckerberg has invested billions in recruiting top-tier AI researchers and constructing robust infrastructure, yet he emphasizes that organizational structure and culture are as crucial as financial resources.
He asserts that the lab is purposefully kept small and selective, consisting of approximately 50 to 100 researchers to ensure that everyone can maintain a comprehensive understanding of the project. He compares this arrangement to a boat with limited seating, where each team member plays an essential role. “You don’t need many, many hundreds of people,” he noted. “You need, you know, 50 to 100 people. It’s a group science project who can basically keep the whole thing in their head at once. Like, seats on the boat are precious.” For Zuckerberg, hiring the wrong person could have significant negative consequences.
“If someone is not pulling their weight on that, then that’s like — it has this huge, negative effect in the way that it doesn’t for a lot of other parts of the company,” he remarked. A standout feature of Meta’s Superintelligence Lab is its absence of strict timelines. Contrary to typical corporate projects driven by deadlines, Zuckerberg contends that AI research cannot be expedited. “It’s research, right? You don’t know how long the thing is going to take,” he explained. “Everyone’s competitive. They all want to kind of be at the frontier and doing leading work. So, you know, me setting a deadline for them isn’t going to help.
It doesn’t help them at all.” By removing unnecessary pressure, the team can concentrate more on making breakthroughs instead of adhering to arbitrary deadlines. Zuckerberg has also structured the lab to function with minimal bureaucracy, avoiding the inclusion of non-technical managers, which he believes can dilute expertise and hinder progress. “We don’t want layers of management that are not technical,” he stated. “People start off technical and then they go into management and then six months or a year later you still think you’re technical, but you actually haven’t been doing the stuff for a while.
The knowledge just kind of slowly decays — or quickly decays in an environment that’s moving as quickly as that.” Moreover, Zuckerberg is not merely an observer of the project; he has integrated himself into the lab’s environment, working closely with the researchers. “Well, I’m in the lab. I moved everyone around me who sat with me, and now the lab is there. I mean, I’m pretty hands on,” Zuckerberg revealed. “The chief scientist sits right next to me. A lot of the other teams sit within 15 feet of me.
I want to make sure that I know the researchers well — that when they have an issue they feel comfortable texting me or just like walking over to my desk.” Zuckerberg’s distinctive leadership approach underscores his belief that advancements in AI will arise not from pressure, but from focus, freedom, and the right blend of talent.