Meta has an algorithm problem – just not the one it thinks it has

MENLO Park must have the highest density of millionaire malcontents in the world. Months after Meta went on a talent-poaching romp through Silicon Valley for artificial intelligence (AI) hires, it now has an elite superintelligence unit that is causing status divisions and a jockeying for resources at the tech firm.

The details, reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) last week, appear to be the stuff of organisational behaviour nightmares. Meta’s AI dream team, TBD Lab, is considered so essential that its members sit near chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg in a restricted area that needs special badge access.

Unlike the rest of Meta’s payroll, the lab’s members are not even named on the internal company organisation chart, like a circle of high-tax-bracket, electric-vehicle-driving Lord Voldemorts.