Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta builds new AI hardware divison, hires hires veteran engineer for mysterious AI gadget: Report

Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta is assembling a new hardware team and is hiring a veteran engineer to lead the effort. According to a report by Business Insider, the new effort is part of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the high-profile AI division the company launched last year under the leadership of former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang.

Meta looking beyond smart glasses for AI devices:

Meta has already made a name for itself with smart glasses and virtual reality headsets, which are made via its Reality Labs division. But the new report suggests that there will be a new hardware team under MSL, which is an indication of the company exploring new categories of AI devices.

Reportedly, the effort has not been announced yet, but some Reality Labs employees have transitioned to MSL to prototype the new division’s software using Reality Labs hardware. The two divisions are said to be currently working closely together on the initiative.

Meta brings veteran engineer to lead the new team:

Meta is reportedly hiring Rui Xu to lead the hardware division at MSL. Xu previously headed hardware at Dreamer, an AI agent startup that Meta acqui-hired last month.

Prior to his role at Dreamer, Xu served as the chief operating officer of the robotics startup K-Scale and worked on smart devices at ByteDance, where he led a lab that shipped millions of units in China. Xu has also worked in management roles at Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Tencent.

The report notes that Nat Friedman, who leads the products and applied research division at MSL, had previously invested in K-Scale through his AI Grant program.

The news of Meta’s AI division working on hardware devices comes at a time when companies like OpenAI are already rushing to build their own AI-native devices. The ChatGPT maker had acquired former Apple designer Jony Ive’s hardware startup IO and is working with the veteran to bring ChatGPT-powered devices as soon as next year.

Meanwhile, Apple is also said to be working on its own AI-powered personal device, which could be coming as early as next year. The device is said to be an AI Pin, which could roughly be the size of an AirTag with a thin, flat, circular disc shape and feature two cameras, three microphones to pick up sound, and a speaker to play audio.

Alexandr Wang on AI devices:

MSL chief Wang, in a podcast with YouTuber Varun Mayya earlier this year, had hinted at the possibility of Meta developing an AI-powered device that could be much more personal than current devices.

“I think you’re going to want your personal agent to be on a constellation of peripherals in the future, and you’re going to… we’re going to expand beyond the phone into a world where you’re going to want your personal agent to be with you in a bunch of different ways,” Wang said on the podcast.

“That will always be on, be, you know, see what you see, hear what you hear, and will be able to just help you in a way that’s much deeper than even the devices today are able to help,” he added.