Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta builds new AI {hardware} divison, hires hires veteran engineer for mysterious AI gadget: Report

Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta is assembling a brand new {hardware} workforce and is hiring a veteran engineer to guide the hassle. According to a report by Business Insider, the brand new effort is a part of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the high-profile AI division the corporate launched final 12 months beneath the management of former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang.

Meta trying past good glasses for AI units:

Meta has already made a reputation for itself with good glasses and digital actuality headsets, that are made through its Reality Labs division. But the brand new report means that there will probably be a brand new {hardware} workforce beneath MSL, which is a sign of the corporate exploring new classes of AI units.

Reportedly, the hassle has not been introduced but, however some Reality Labs staff have transitioned to MSL to prototype the brand new division’s software program utilizing Reality Labs {hardware}. The two divisions are stated to be at the moment working carefully collectively on the initiative.

Meta brings veteran engineer to guide the brand new workforce:

Meta is reportedly hiring Rui Xu to guide the {hardware} division at MSL. Xu beforehand headed {hardware} at Dreamer, an AI agent startup that Meta acqui-hired final month.

Prior to his position at Dreamer, Xu served because the chief working officer of the robotics startup Okay-Scale and labored on good units at ByteDance, the place he led a lab that shipped tens of millions of items in China. Xu has additionally labored in administration roles at Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Tencent.

The report notes that Nat Friedman, who leads the merchandise and utilized analysis division at MSL, had beforehand invested in Okay-Scale by means of his AI Grant program.

The information of Meta’s AI division engaged on {hardware} units comes at a time when firms like OpenAI are already speeding to construct their very own AI-native units. The ChatGPT maker had acquired former Apple designer Jony Ive’s {hardware} startup IO and is working with the veteran to deliver ChatGPT-powered units as quickly as subsequent 12 months.

Meanwhile, Apple can also be stated to be working by itself AI-powered private machine, which might be coming as early as subsequent 12 months. The machine is claimed to be an AI Pin, which might roughly be the scale of an AirTag with a skinny, flat, round disc form and have two cameras, three microphones to choose up sound, and a speaker to play audio.

Alexandr Wang on AI units:

MSL chief Wang, in a podcast with YouTuber Varun Mayya earlier this 12 months, had hinted at the potential for Meta creating an AI-powered machine that might be way more private than present units.

“I think you’re going to want your personal agent to be on a constellation of peripherals in the future, and you’re going to… we’re going to expand beyond the phone into a world where you’re going to want your personal agent to be with you in a bunch of different ways,” Wang stated on the podcast.

“That will always be on, be, you know, see what you see, hear what you hear, and will be able to just help you in a way that’s much deeper than even the devices today are able to help,” he added.