Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social media group's work on AI has produced “glimpses” of systems improving themselves.
“The improvement is slow for now, but undeniable," he said in a memo. “Developing superintelligence is now in sight.”
The company is throwing billions of dollars at winning the AI race.
Meta, in releasing its June quarter results, warned it is preparing to spend big on infrastructure and on hiring talent.
The largest single driver of expenses in 2026 will be infrastructure costs, followed by employee compensation as Meta adds technical talent.
Meta expects 2025 capital expenditures to be in the range of $66 billion to $72 billion.
Minda Smiley, a senior analyst at eMarketer, noted the billions flowing into an AI future for Meta.
"AI-driven investments into Meta’s advertising business continue to pay off, bolstering its revenue as the company pours billions of dollars into AI ambitions like superintelligence," Smiley said.
“But Meta’s exorbitant spending on its AI visions will continue to draw questions and scrutiny from investors who are eager to see returns.
"And even as its advertising business remains healthy, its earnings come against a backdrop of regulatory challenges that Meta faces in the US and abroad, adding more uncertainty to its future."
Zuckerberg is optimistic that superintelligence will help humanity accelerate its pace of progress.
“But perhaps even more important is that superintelligence has the potential to begin a new era of personal empowerment where people will have greater agency to improve the world in the directions they choose,” he said.
In some ways this will be a new era for humanity, but in others it's just a continuation of historical trends, he said.
“As recently as 200 years ago, 90% of people were farmers growing food to survive. “Advances in technology have steadily freed much of humanity to focus less on subsistence and more on the pursuits we choose.
“At each step, people have used our newfound productivity to achieve more than was previously possible, pushing the frontiers of science and health, as well as spending more time on creativity, culture, relationships, and enjoying life.”
He sees a personal superintelligence that helps everyone hit goals, “create what you want to see in the world, experience any adventure, be a better friend to those you care about, and grow to become the person you aspire to be”.
The intersection of technology and how people live is Meta's focus, and this will only become more important in the future, he said.
“If trends continue, then you'd expect people to spend less time in productivity software, and more time creating and connecting," he said.
“Personal superintelligence that knows us deeply, understands our goals, and can help us achieve them will be by far the most useful. Personal devices like glasses that understand our context because they can see what we see, hear what we hear, and interact with us throughout the day will become our primary computing devices.
"We believe the benefits of superintelligence should be shared with the world as broadly as possible.
“That said, superintelligence will raise novel safety concerns. We'll need to be rigorous about mitigating these risks and careful about what we choose to open source. Still, we believe that building a free society requires that we aim to empower people as much as possible.”
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