Mark Zuckerberg Calls Meta’s Superintelligence Lab a “Group Science Project” with No Deadlines

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is taking a radically different approach to artificial intelligence research. Speaking on the Rowan Cheung Podcast, he compared the company’s newly formed Superintelligence Lab to a “group science project,” emphasizing collaboration, freedom, and the absence of strict deadlines.

The lab, which is part of Meta’s long-term push toward developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) — AI systems with human-like cognitive abilities — has already become one of the company’s boldest undertakings. Zuckerberg has poured billions into hiring elite AI researchers and building powerful infrastructure, but he insists that structure and culture matter just as much as resources.

Small Teams, Big Vision

According to Zuckerberg, the lab is intentionally kept small and selective. Rather than assembling hundreds of engineers, the team is made up of about 50 to 100 researchers who can “keep the whole thing in their head at once.” He likens the setup to a boat with limited seats, where each member has an irreplaceable role.

“You don’t need many, many hundreds of people,” he explained. “You need, you know, 50 to 100 people. It’s a group science project who can basically keep the whole thing in their head at once. Like, seats on the boat are precious.”

For Zuckerberg, one wrong hire could be detrimental. “If someone is not, isn’t pulling their weight on that, then that’s like — it has this huge, negative effect in the way that it doesn’t for a lot of other parts of the company,” he said.

No Deadlines, No Pressure

One of the most striking principles of Meta’s Superintelligence Lab is the lack of rigid timelines. Unlike most corporate projects where deadlines drive productivity, Zuckerberg believes that innovation in AI research can’t be rushed.

“It’s research, right? You don’t know how long the thing is going to take,” he said. “Everyone’s competitive. They all want to kind of be at the frontier and doing leading work. So, you know, me setting a deadline for them isn’t going to help. It doesn’t help them at all.”

By eliminating artificial pressure, the team is expected to focus more on breakthroughs than on meeting arbitrary targets.

Cutting Bureaucracy and Middle Management

Zuckerberg has also designed the lab to operate with minimal bureaucracy. He avoids layering the team with non-technical managers, arguing that such structures dilute expertise and slow down progress.

“We don’t want layers of management that are not technical,” he explained. “People start off technical and then they go into management and then six months or a year later you still think you’re technical, but you actually haven’t been doing the stuff for a while. The knowledge just kind of slowly decays — or quickly decays in an environment that’s moving as quickly as that.”

Hands-On Leadership

The Meta chief isn’t just overseeing the project from afar. He has physically embedded himself in the lab’s setup, working side by side with researchers.

“Well, I’m in the lab. I moved everyone around me who sat with me, and now the lab is there. I mean, I’m pretty hands on,” Zuckerberg shared. “The chief scientist sits right next to me. A lot of the other teams sit within 15 feet of me. I want to make sure that I know the researchers well — that when they have an issue they feel comfortable texting me or just like walking over to my desk.”

Zuckerberg’s unique leadership style reflects his belief that breakthroughs in AI will come not from pressure, but from focus, freedom, and the right mix of talent.