Facing increasing competitive pressure, Meta Platforms is exploring the possibility of integrating leading artificial intelligence models from its direct rivals, Google and OpenAI.
According to The Information, this pragmatic, albeit surprising, move is aimed at temporarily bolstering the Meta AI chatbot and other smart features in the company’s apps, pending the development of its own advanced technology.
Executives from Meta’s newly created ‘Superintelligence Labs’ division have been analysing the use of the Gemini model from Google to power text responses in Meta’s main AI assistant.
In parallel, there have been discussions about the potential use of models from OpenAI to improve a wider range of AI-based features in the app ecosystem, which includes Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook.
The potential partnerships are seen internally as a bridging solution. They are intended to ensure that Meta’s products do not lose ground to the rapidly evolving market while the company focuses its vast resources on building its own next-generation flagship model, known internally as the Llama 5.
The lab’s priority is to create technology that can compete directly with the most powerful models in the world.
The strategy reveals Met’s two-pronged approach to the AI race. On the one hand, the company is investing billions of dollars and offering unprecedented compensation packages to attract top talent to its Superintelligence Labs, headed by recently acquired Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, and Nat Friedman, former head of GitHub.
On the other hand, the company shows a willingness to use external, even competitive, solutions to maintain momentum.
This practice is not entirely new to Meta. The company already uses AI models from Anthropic in internal tools to assist developers. However, the move to integrate with Google or OpenAI on such a large scale signals that building fully competitive, in-house foundational models will take longer than the company is willing to wait, risking an exodus of users to more advanced solutions from competitors.
This strategic manoeuvre highlights the enormous stakes and complexity of the current phase of the competition for supremacy in the field of artificial intelligence.
