Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is disappointed that artificial-intelligence agents haven't developed faster. But that doesn't mean the social-media company is dropping out of the AI race.
Zuckerberg said AI agents -- software that can carry out complex tasks autonomously -- hadn't accelerated in the way Meta executives had expected but the company expects more significant payoff from its investment in the technology in the coming months, Reuters reported, citing an internal company meeting.
Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment early on Friday. However, Meta's chief AI officer Alexandr Wang responded in a post on social-media site X, appearing to indirectly confirm the remarks.
"First, Mark was clearly talking about the industry's progress on agentic capabilities on the whole," wrote Wang.
"But, while we're on the topic: Our next Muse Spark update is coming soon. Big improvements in coding and agentic capabilities to be more competitive with other leading models." Wang wrote.
That could soothe concerns that Meta is preparing to become the first of the big U.S. tech companies to cut back on its AI spending, following a 12% slide in its shares this year so far through to Thursday's close.
Meta plans to spend roughly $135 billion on its data-center build-out this year, leading investors to fret over its ability to generate returns on the massive investment. So far the company has failed to launch a cutting-edge foundation model to rival OpenAI's ChatGPT series, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude.
Speculation over a pivot in Meta's strategy mounted this week after Bloomberg reported that the company might launch a cloud business to sell excess AI computing capacity. Meta declined to comment on the report but Zuckerberg has previously suggested it could be a recourse if it turns out the company has overspend on its infrastructure.
But Wang's comments indicate that Meta's primary AI ambitions are still centered on developing its own models rather than becoming a supplier for other companies.
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