Inside Meta’s attempts to play catch-up with AI

深入了解 Meta 在人工智能领域的追赶尝试

A year after Mark Zuckerberg installed Alexandr Wang to jolt Meta’s artificial intelligence efforts into wartime mode, the $1.5 trillion company has produced Muse Spark, its most credible AI model yet. 在马克·扎克伯格任命亚历山大·王（Alexandr Wang）以“战时状态”重振 Meta 的人工智能业务一年后，这家市值 1.5 万亿美元的公司推出了其迄今为止最可靠的 AI 模型——Muse Spark。

By handing responsibility for Meta’s AI revival to a then-28-year-old start-up founder rather than a veteran researcher, Zuckerberg bet that an outsider’s urgency and ambition could succeed where the company’s established AI organization had struggled. 通过将 Meta AI 复兴的重任交给一位当时年仅 28 岁的初创公司创始人，而非资深研究人员，扎克伯格押注于这位“局外人”的紧迫感和雄心，认为他能在公司原有 AI 团队陷入困境的地方取得成功。

According to interviews with current and former Meta employees, and associates of Wang, the billionaire wunderkind has now begun to eke out results, while navigating criticism over his experience, early research challenges, and the esoteric internal politics of working at a Big Tech behemoth. 根据对 Meta 现任和前任员工以及王氏身边人士的采访，这位亿万富翁神童如今已开始取得初步成果，同时还要应对外界对其经验的质疑、早期的研究挑战，以及在大型科技巨头内部工作时复杂的政治环境。

In nearly 12 months, Wang has assembled an elite research group on multimillion-dollar salaries, reshaped parts of Meta’s AI operation, and emerged as one of the most influential executives inside the company—the only Meta leader alongside Zuckerberg to attend a White House dinner with top Silicon Valley figures last year hosted by President Donald Trump. 在近 12 个月的时间里，王组建了一支拿着数百万美元薪水的精英研究团队，重塑了 Meta AI 业务的部分架构，并成为公司内部最具影响力的主管之一——他是去年除扎克伯格之外，唯一受邀参加唐纳德·特朗普总统在白宫为硅谷顶尖人物举办的晚宴的 Meta 高管。

In April, Meta also released Muse Spark, the first major model to emerge from Wang’s secretive research group, known as TBD Lab. Wang’s proponents view the release of the model as the clearest sign yet that Meta’s AI rebuilding effort is gaining traction and are confident that successor models—expected to launch in the coming months—could further close the gap with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. 今年 4 月，Meta 发布了 Muse Spark，这是王氏秘密研究小组（被称为 TBD Lab）推出的首个重大模型。王的支持者认为，该模型的发布是 Meta AI 重建工作取得进展的最明确信号，并坚信预计在未来几个月内推出的后续模型，能够进一步缩小与 OpenAI、Google 和 Anthropic 之间的差距。

“The amount of work the TBD Lab was able to do in a short amount of time is very impressive,” said Russ Salakhutdinov, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and Meta’s former vice president of AI research. “Alex knows what he doesn’t know and he’s willing to listen.” “TBD Lab 在短时间内完成的工作量令人印象深刻，”卡内基梅隆大学计算机科学教授、Meta 前 AI 研究副总裁拉斯·萨拉赫丁诺夫（Russ Salakhutdinov）表示，“亚历克斯知道自己的知识盲区，并且愿意倾听。”

Others inside Meta are far less convinced. Critics describe Wang’s leadership as frenetic, arguing he has overplayed what is more incremental progress. Some current and former employees are skeptical that Meta can gain a leading position in frontier AI under Wang. “The TBD folks, Alex and Zuck too, set a pretty low bar for Muse Spark internally and externally,” said one former Meta AI employee. “The other labs are moving fast.” Meta 内部的其他人则远没有那么信服。批评者形容王的领导风格“狂热”，认为他夸大了实际上只是渐进式的进展。一些现任和前任员工怀疑 Meta 在王的领导下能否在尖端 AI 领域占据领先地位。“TBD 的人，包括亚历克斯和扎克，在内部和外部都为 Muse Spark 设定了相当低的门槛，”一位 Meta 前 AI 员工说，“其他实验室的发展速度非常快。”

Meta said: “Alex’s record speaks for itself: In less than a year, he’s helped build one of the strongest research teams in the industry and led Meta Superintelligence Labs as it launched Muse Spark and established the scientific and technical foundations to scale even more advanced models. We’re excited for everyone to see what they do next.” Meta 对此回应称：“亚历克斯的成绩有目共睹：在不到一年的时间里，他帮助建立了业内最强大的研究团队之一，并领导 Meta 超级智能实验室（Meta Superintelligence Labs）推出了 Muse Spark，为扩展更先进的模型奠定了科学和技术基础。我们很期待大家看到他们接下来的表现。”

Meta is spending tens of billions of dollars on AI, with investors demanding evidence the outlays will translate into revenue. Muse Spark, and future TBD models, are expected to improve Meta’s content and advertising targeting machines, and also underpin initiatives ranging from AI assistants and business agents to digital avatars and wearables. Meta 正在 AI 领域投入数百亿美元，投资者要求看到这些支出转化为收入的证据。Muse Spark 以及未来的 TBD 模型有望改进 Meta 的内容和广告定位机制，并为从 AI 助手、商业代理到数字虚拟形象和可穿戴设备等一系列计划提供支撑。

Wang was recruited after Meta’s AI efforts suffered a series of setbacks last year, culminating in the disappointing reception to the Llama 4 model and growing concern inside the company that rivals were pulling further ahead. Zuckerberg responded by investing $15 billion into Wang’s data-labeling startup Scale AI and hired its co-founder. Scale AI had worked closely with leading AI labs, with Zuckerberg believing that Wang’s network and operational intensity could help rebuild Meta’s research organization. 王是在 Meta 的 AI 业务去年遭遇一系列挫折后被招募的，这些挫折最终导致了 Llama 4 模型发布后的反响平平，以及公司内部对于竞争对手进一步领先的担忧加剧。扎克伯格对此的回应是向王的初创数据标注公司 Scale AI 投资 150 亿美元，并聘请了其联合创始人。Scale AI 此前与领先的 AI 实验室合作密切，扎克伯格认为王的资源网络和运营强度有助于重建 Meta 的研究组织。

Granted unusual autonomy and secrecy, Wang quickly assembled TBD Lab, a handpicked group of about 100 researchers working from a secure area of Meta’s Menlo Park headquarters that requires special badges to enter, according to people familiar with the operation. Both Wang and Zuckerberg have offices inside the work area, while non-TBD staff have occasionally been caught trying to sneak in. 据知情人士透露，在获得不同寻常的自主权和保密权限后，王迅速组建了 TBD Lab，这是一个由他亲自挑选的约 100 名研究人员组成的团队，他们在 Meta 门洛帕克总部的一个安全区域工作，进入该区域需要特殊证件。王和扎克伯格在该工作区内都设有办公室，而非 TBD 的员工有时会被发现试图潜入。

Early on, TBD encountered some teething problems, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Some staff were poached by rivals, including Ruoming Pang, a former Apple executive, who left after just seven months to OpenAI. Certain research efforts, including initiatives to develop an entirely new codebase for training models, have faced challenges, several people said. 据多位知情人士透露，TBD 在早期遇到了一些磨合问题。一些员工被竞争对手挖走，包括前苹果高管庞若明（Ruoming Pang），他在入职仅七个月后就跳槽去了 OpenAI。几位人士表示，某些研究工作，包括开发用于训练模型的全新代码库的计划，也面临着挑战。

In the end, Muse Spark was built using some elements of Meta’s pre-existing AI infrastructure, including code and datasets associated with Llama 4, according to people familiar with the project. Subsequent comments by Wang suggesting Muse Spark had been developed “from scratch” irritated some who felt the contributions of the Llama team were not acknowledged, in a sign of deepening tensions between the company’s established AI teams and the TBD lab. 据项目知情人士透露，最终，Muse Spark 是利用 Meta 现有的部分 AI 基础设施构建的，包括与 Llama 4 相关的代码和数据集。王随后暗示 Muse Spark 是“从零开始”开发的言论，激怒了一些认为 Llama 团队贡献未得到认可的人，这显示出公司原有 AI 团队与 TBD 实验室之间日益加深的紧张关系。

With the TBD team in place, Wang has sought to establish a roadmap that combines his and Zuckerberg’s vision for “personal superintelligence” with the convictions of individual researchers and the practical realities of scaling the infrastructure needed to train future generations of models, according to people familiar with his thinking. He has also reshaped Meta’s AI safety work with a new team known internally as TBA, or “To Be Aligned.” 据熟悉王想法的人士称，随着 TBD 团队的到位，王一直在寻求制定一条路线图，将他和扎克伯格对“个人超级智能”的愿景，与研究人员个人的信念，以及扩展训练未来模型所需基础设施的现实需求结合起来。他还重塑了 Meta 的 AI 安全工作，成立了一个内部称为 TBA（即“To Be Aligned”，意为“待对齐”）的新团队。

In leadership discussions with executives, including Zuckerberg, Wang has prioritized advancing the models while some other leaders have been more concerned with quickly rolling out AI products, according to people familiar with the conversations. During internal presentations to the AI team known as “Vibe Checks,” Wang espouses an idealistic push towards developing AI so smart that it might solve the world’s problems, at odds with the focus of others on social media applications, one insider said. Several people said Wang had also advocated placing greater emphasis on proprietary models over Meta’s longstanding open source approach. Wang has tried to build support for his vision by cultivating a non-hierarchical start-up culture inside TBD. 据知情人士透露，在与包括扎克伯格在内的高管讨论时，王优先考虑推进模型研发，而其他一些领导者则更关心如何快速推出 AI 产品。一位内部人士表示，在被称为“Vibe Checks”的 AI 团队内部演示中，王倡导一种理想主义的推动力，即开发能够解决世界难题的超级智能 AI，这与其他人专注于社交媒体应用的重点不符。几位人士称，王还主张比 Meta 长期坚持的开源方针更侧重于专有模型。王一直试图通过在 TBD 内部培养一种非等级制的初创公司文化，来为其愿景争取支持。