San Francisco Frontiers - Meta releases first new AI model since shaking up team

"Over the last nine months, Meta Superintelligence Labs rebuilt our AI stack from the ground up," the tech titan said in a blog post.

Muse Spark succeeds Llama 4, released by the Silicon Valley-based firm a year ago, and will power Meta's AI app and smart glasses along with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger features.

For now, Muse Spark is only available in the United States.

The new AI model was described as being small and fast by design, capable of reasoning through complex questions in science, math and health.

It is the first in a new Muse series, with the next generation already in development.

Llama 4 lagged in the fierce AI race as heavyweight rivals from China, France, and the United States produced improved models at a rapid-fire pace.

That prompted Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to overhaul its AI team, which saw the departure of its research boss Yann LeCun.

LeCun spent 12 years leading the AI lab at Meta, where Zuckerberg has made the quest for "superintelligence" a priority.

Zuckerberg embarked on a major recruitment campaign last year to acquire talent for the Meta's efforts, poaching Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang and putting him in charge of a newly formed unit called Superintelligence Labs.

Zuckerberg subsequently recruited executives from rivals OpenAI, Anthropic and Google - often personally and at heady costs.

In doing so, the tech tycoon broke with the company's previous approach of prioritizing development of free, open-access AI models such as Llama.

"The future of Meta AI is rooted in the relationships and context already at the center of your life," the company said.

"We are building toward personal superintelligence - an AI that does not just answer your questions but truly understands your world because it is built on it."

K.Torres--SFF