Companies in the AI race are barreling toward a new goalpost: so-called superintelligence, or an AI model that can surpass human intelligence.

The terminology here can get a bit dizzying. Top AI companies had already been trying to build what’s long been called “artificial general intelligence” (AGI), or AI that they claim will be as smart as humans. Depending on who you talk to, superintelligence might just be a flashy marketing term meant to draw even more venture capital — or it might be the obvious next step in the development of AI models that some believe are already as intelligent as humans.

Meta, in particular, has branded its AI department around the goal of superintelligence through its new “Superintelligence Labs.” Over the past few months, Mark Zuckerberg has escalated the industry’s talent war, reportedly offering pay packages of up to $1 billion dollars to recruit Silicon Valley’s top AI engineers.

Today, Explained co-host Sean Rameswaram recently spoke with Riley Griffin, tech reporter at Bloomberg, about why Meta is gunning so hard for top AI talent right now and what the company hopes to build with these top technologists.

Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full episode, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts,

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