Meta Focuses on AGI and Llama 3

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has put his weight behind the pursuit of artificial general intelligence. In a recent Instagram post, he announced, "Our long-term vision is to build AGI, responsibly open-source it, and make it widely available so that everyone can benefit."

To achieve this goal, he has merged his two main AI research projects, FAIR and GenAI teams. "We are bringing our two main AI research projects (FAIR and GenAI) closer together to support this," he wrote in his post.

The merger of FAIR and GenAI teams is truly intriguing. While FAIR focuses on research, the GenAI team is dedicated to providing generative AI experiences for Meta applications. During last year's Meta Connect, new features were announced for creators on Facebook and Instagram, including AI-driven image editing, sticker generation, and personalized recommendations.

This merger has reminded many of the Google Brain and DeepMind merger that took place last year. Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann Lecun wrote, "FAIR is part of Reality Labs-Research (RL-R), with a focus on the Metaverse, AR, VR, and MR. Given the increasing importance of AI and the close relationship between FAIR and GenAI, it makes sense to have FAIR and GenAI under the same umbrella."

GPU = AGI?

Considering Meta's computing resources, they may be leading in the AGI race. "We are currently training our next-generation model, Llama 3, and we are building a massive computing infrastructure to support our future goals, including 350,000 H100s by the end of this year and nearly 600,000 H100-level computers if you count other computing devices," said Zuckerberg.

Given that Meta had 150,000 H100s last year, the current number of GPUs owned by Meta is not surprising. Interestingly, this is the first time a large tech company has publicly disclosed precise numbers. On the other hand, the number of GPUs owned by OpenAI has not been disclosed, although Sam Altman hinted that they have enough resources to train GPT-5.

Zuckerberg has set his sights on AGI, but Sam Altman recently downplayed its impact in a conversation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "The change it will bring to the world will be much smaller than any of us imagine, and it will not change work as much as we all think," he said.

AGI in the Metaverse

Zuckerberg hopes that once AGI is achieved, it will not only exist in the physical world but also in the fusion of virtual and physical reality. "People will also need new devices to interact with AI and the Metaverse. Because over time, I think many of us will be talking to AI frequently throughout the day," he said.

In addition, he believes that Meta's Ray-Ban glasses are the ideal form for AI to see and hear what you see and hear. "Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, combined with Meta AI, have a very strong start, and in all of this, we are just getting started," he said.

Furthermore, he revealed that Meta remains committed to the Metaverse and is actively investing in it. The company has allocated a budget of over $15 billion per year to support Reality Labs and advance the development of the Metaverse.

Is Meta the new OpenAI?

Ultimately, the concept of open-sourcing AGI may force OpenAI to reconsider its strategy, considering the company's initial embrace of open-source models.

In a recent World Economic Forum, LeCun advocated for open-sourcing foundational models, emphasizing that OpenAI wouldn't be what it is today without contributions from the open-source community.

OpenAI does not have a monopoly on good ideas. They cannot achieve AGI on their own; in fact, they are using PyTorch and Transformers, which many of us have released. They benefit from the open research environment," he said.

Arvind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, said, "Open-sourcing AGI is a fantastic vision. You (Meta) are building a very powerful technology and aligning it with something meaningful in the world: giving more people the power to decide what is meaningful and what is not."