Zuck's Scorched Earth AI Strategy

Initiator

Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta)

Organization

Meta

Primary Goal

Commoditize foundational AI model market

Core Principle

Aggressive open-sourcing of high-performance AI models

Evolving Focus

Shift towards 'personal superintelligence' and user engagement

Secondary Goal

Disrupt business models of closed-source AI competitors

Strategic Analogy

Linux vs Unix

Key Open-Source Models

Llama 3, Llama 3.1

Llama 3.1 Cost Efficiency

Roughly half the cost of OpenAI's GPT-4o to run

Potential Strategic Shift

Not all 'superintelligence' models will be open-sourced

Meta's Competitive Advantage

Reinforcement Learning from vast user data

2024-07-26

2024-08-01

First, there was Mark Zuckerberg continuing his scorched-earth campaign to drive down the cost of accessing foundational AI models. Llama 3.1 narrows the gap between the performance of open- and closed-source AI, and Meta claims it costs roughly half as much as OpenAI’s GPT-4o to run. In a video announcing the news, Zuckerberg wore a custom shirt with a quote from Emperor Augustus emblazoned in Latin: “At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army.” [...] Having started TheFacebook.com when he was 19, Zuckerberg has lived through two decades of technology waves. He hopes that the market for AI models plays out like Linux versus Unix in the early 2000s, when the open standard drove down costs for the industry and became more widely adopted. If that happens this time, Meta and its Big Tech peers are well positioned, given that value and competitive edge will flow away from the underlying models to the products they power. [...] Those competing in this race will always need the best models, and I’m not saying that frontier model development is slowing down by any means. But there seems to be a growing realization that a combination of the best AI products with the most distribution will win over the long run. Zuckerberg gets this: while announcing the new Llama model, he also predicted that Meta’s AI assistant will surpass ChatGPT’s usage before the end of the year.

Mark Zuckerberg has signaled a strategic shift at Meta: while the company historically embraced open-source with its Llama series, it now intends not to publicly release all of its most advanced “superintelligence” models. In a recent memo, Zuckerberg framed this pivot as a response to evolving safety challenges presented by AI systems that are beginning to show signs of self-improvement. He emphasized the need to be “rigorous” about what is shared and suggested that open sourcing could be [...] Image 2: Zuckerberg signals Meta won't open source all of its 'superintelligence' AI models | TechCrunch techcrunch.com Zuckerberg signals Meta won't open source all of its 'superintelligence' AI models | TechCrunch Meta is shifting how it plans to ensure widespread access to superintelligence, a suggestion that the company’s most advanced AI may remain closed so that Meta can stay in the driver’s seat. Image 3 All reactions: 5 1 comment Like Comment Share Most relevant []( [...] Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Malaysia | Mark Zuckerberg signals potential shift in Meta’s open-source AI strategy | Facebook Log In Log In Forgot Account? Image 1 Meta's AI strategy shifts from open-source to controlled releases Summarized by AI from the post below []( Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Malaysia Kuan Hoong Poo · Admin · August 1 · Mark Zuckerberg signals potential shift in Meta’s open-source AI strategy

The changes follow months of tumult and restructuring at Meta over its A.I. strategy. Mr. Zuckerberg, 41, is sparing no expense and is willing to upend his company to stay relevant in A.I. as the push to create the most advanced technology has boiled down to a few key players. How Meta will fare is being closely watched, as the A.I. race creates new winners and losers. Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like. A correction was made on Aug. 19, 2025 [...] The reorganization is likely to be the final one for some time, the people said. The moves are aimed at better organizing Meta so it can get to its goal of superintelligence and develop A.I. products more quickly to compete with others, the people said. [...] In what would be a shift from Meta’s using only its own technology to power its A.I. products, the company is also actively exploring using third-party artificial intelligence models to do so, the people said. That could include building on other “open-source” A.I. models, which are freely available, or licensing “closed-source” models from other companies.

In his “Personal Superintelligence Manifesto,” Zuckerberg predicts that as AI boosts productivity, people will spend less time using productivity software and more time on creative and social activities. He envisions an AI that understands each user, their goals, and how to help them achieve them. While companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic aim to build AI systems that take over more work, Meta wants to use AI to help fill the extra time people gain from increased productivity. [...] Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has outlined what he calls “personal superintelligence,” marking a shift in the company’s AI strategy. Technology journalist Alex Heath from The Verge, who has interviewed Zuckerberg several times, believes the plan signals that Meta is stepping back from trying to directly compete with ChatGPT in productivity tools. Instead, the focus is shifting to Meta’s core motive: to keep people engaged on its platforms. [...] Over the past year, Zuckerberg promoted Meta’s AI assistant heavily in Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in an attempt to slow ChatGPT’s momentum. But ChatGPT’s strong early lead, reputation as a productivity tool, and ability to help users complete tasks efficiently have kept it ahead. Heath says Zuckerberg appears to have realised that copying that approach isn’t working.