Meta Hires Former OpenAI Scientist to Lead AI Research

Meta has made another high-profile addition to its artificial intelligence team by hiring Yang Song, a former OpenAI scientist, as a research principal at Meta Superintelligence Labs. Song previously led OpenAI’s strategic explorations team, where he was responsible for identifying and testing forward-looking research areas in advanced AI.

In his new role, Song will help shape Meta’s long-term efforts to build superintelligent systems capable of reasoning and learning at levels far beyond current large language models. Meta Superintelligence Labs was launched earlier this year to consolidate the company’s most ambitious AI projects under one umbrella, accelerating breakthroughs in areas such as autonomous agents, multimodal reasoning, and safety.

The move underscores Meta’s determination to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind in the race to develop next-generation AI. Meta has been aggressively expanding its talent pool, recruiting top researchers from rival firms and academic institutions while open-sourcing some of its AI models to attract developers and researchers.

Industry observers say Song’s appointment signals Meta’s commitment to not only scaling its AI infrastructure but also investing in exploratory research that could lead to entirely new architectures. His expertise in aligning cutting-edge technology with long-term strategic goals is seen as a key asset for Meta as it pursues breakthroughs in superintelligent systems.

With this hire, Meta Superintelligence Labs positions itself as a serious contender in shaping the future of artificial intelligence, blending deep technical innovation with a focus on responsible deployment at massive scale.