Nothing says talent war like a $US100 million ($153 million) job offer. Mark Zuckerberg has been on a hiring blitz for AI’s most revered scientists, sending them cold emails and offering them roles in his new Superintelligence Labs division whose goal is nothing less than to build artificial-intelligence software that’s smarter than humans.

You might wonder why the Meta chief executive officer, whose company already prints money from clever ad targeting and recommendation software, needs to build godlike AI, but you’d be underestimating the hottest prize in tech, which Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI have been vying to win. Zuckerberg is now coming from behind with a viable shot at getting there first.

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg is spending big as he plays catch-up.Credit: Bloomberg

Having attracted some of AI’s top brains with huge sums and previous pledges to make AI free for all and potentially more impactful, he’s now created momentum among other leading........

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