Last year, a Meta executive warned staff of a significant gap when it came to applying artificial intelligence (AI). Santosh Janardhan, the head of infrastructure at Meta, wrote in an internal memo posted on the company’s message board in September that “we need to invest heavily” in developing for AI. This would involve an overall shift in infrastructure design, software systems and the provision of a stable platform. To prepare themselves for the AI race, Meta was reportedly lacking.
Google issued a “code red” alert in November when the success of AI-based chatbot ChatGPT highlighted Meta’s unpreparedness. Following this, Meta redirected some of their teams to accommodate the need for AI products. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth announced in April that the company has been investing heavily in generative AI. Also, they released their “LLaMA” language model to researchers during the same month. Later, in January 2021, the company finally collaborated with Nvidia to build its advanced AI supercomputer. However, some analysts are concerned with the hefty spending on AI by Meta.
Meta is a technology company founded in 2012 by Mark Zuckerberg and a few of his college colleagues. It provides resources that enable people to explore and create artificial worlds, imbibing 3D interactivity for an immersive experience. The company focuses on virtual reality, AI and Machine Learning, and cryptography. It also produces AI-enabled immersive products like the Oculus platform. After the departure of co-founder and PayPal Mafia member Peter Thiel from the company’s board, Meta shifted their focus strongly to the realm of the “metaverse,” which may have hindered their attempt to compete with the success of TikTok. Despite this, Meta claims to possess extensive experience in creating state-of-the-art infrastructure to accommodate the exploration and development of AI-enabled products.
Santosh Janardhan was the head of infrastructure for Meta until he resigned in 2021. Prior to his work with Meta, he had served as the Chief Cloud Officer of Mindtree Ltd., a leading international digital transformation and technology services company. He also served as VP of engineering and QA with Sun Microsystems and Chief Operating Officer of Farasis Energy, Inc. He has been in the technology industry for more than 25 years and holds an electrical engineering degree. He is currently pursuing a MS degree in data science with the University of South Carolina.
