According to an internal memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Meta is moving further by building a new engineering organization focused on applied artificial intelligence – an initiative designed to accelerate the development of what many in the industry increasingly refer to as superintelligence.
Superintelligence is a hypothetical form of artificial intelligence that would surpass human capabilities across all cognitive tasks.
From restructuring to a new engineering organization
Last summer, Meta restructured its AI operations, leading to the launch of Meta Superintelligence Labs, headed by former Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang. The creation of the new engineering team is a direct consequence of this restructuring.
The new organization will be led by Maher Saba, vice president at Reality Labs, the division responsible for Meta’s metaverse-related products and will focus on building developer tools, data pipelines, and evaluation systems. These components are intended to improve AI models through feedback loops and real-world data. Business Insider also reports that the new organization will work closely with Meta Superintelligence Labs, which focuses on developing Meta’s most advanced AI models.
Team structure and operational model
According to The Wall Street Journal, Maher Saba stated that the new organization will operate with two teams. One team will focus on building interfaces and development tools, while the other will handle operational tasks – conducting evaluations, generating datasets, and delivering them to the development teams. The key advantage of this structure is the ability to produce higher-quality training data and more efficient evaluation processes.
“Building great models isn’t just about researchers and compute; it requires real-world data, feedback and evals. This creates the flywheel that turns a strong model into a leading one. Lately, we’ve seen some excellent gains from reinforcement learning and post-training and we believe we have a real opportunity to move faster and pull ahead if we double down on these efforts.” – Maher Saba
Flat management as a competitive advantage
Notably, the engineering organization will operate with an unusually flat management structure. The ratio of managers to engineers could reach as high as one manager for every 50 engineers. According to reports, this approach is designed to empower individual engineers and enable large teams to operate with minimal management layers, aligning with Mark Zuckerberg’s philosophy. He has repeatedly stated that reducing hierarchy helps elevate the role of individual contributors, driving faster development and keeping the team adaptable.
What does this tell us
Meta currently operates through three main groups: the research laboratory led by Wang, the applied AI engineering organization headed by Saba, and the broader technology strategy under Bosworth. Together, these teams drive the development of cutting-edge technologies, supporting the company’s push toward advanced AI and superintelligence.
That said, the AI race is gradually shifting from building models themselves to developing the infrastructure around them.
Companies are increasingly focused on controlling data pipelines, developer tools, and evaluation systems – elements that may ultimately determine the leaders of the next phase of artificial intelligence development. Meta’s decision to create a new organization further highlights the ambitions of major tech companies and their growing focus on building infrastructure as a key element of their strategy to achieve superintelligence.