Meta Is Building AI That Can Write Code Like a Mid-Level Engineer, According to Mark Zuckerberg Meanwhile, OpenAI is reportedly preparing to launch a Ph.D.-level super AI that can complete complex human tasks.

By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut

Key Takeaways

  • Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan earlier this month that Meta is developing new AI that will be able to write "a lot of the code in our apps."
  • OpenAI, meanwhile, is reportedly working on AI that can complete Ph.D.-level work.

What is the big AI announcement happening this month?

OpenAI is reportedly set to announce an AI breakthrough in the coming weeks—AI that can do Ph.D.-level tasks, potentially replacing complex human work, Axios reported on Sunday. CEO Sam Altman has scheduled a closed-door briefing with the U.S. government in Washington D.C. on January 30, according to the report.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, revealed earlier this month that Meta is working on an AI, likely to arrive this year, that can replace mid-level engineers at the company.

"Probably in 2025, we at Meta, as well as the other companies that are basically working on this, are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of midlevel engineer that you have at your company that can write code," Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan.

Related: 'Masculine Energy Is Good': Mark Zuckerberg Tells Joe Rogan He Thinks Companies Need More Aggression

    In the interview, Zuckerberg said Meta is working towards the moment when "a lot of the code in our apps and including the AI that we generate, is actually going to be built by AI engineers instead of people engineers."

    Mark Zuckerberg. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

    Is AI Replacing Tech Jobs?

    Meta also announced earlier this month, in a note written by Zuckerberg and obtained by Bloomberg, that it would be cutting about 5% of its 72,000-person staff. However, AI won't be replacing those roles just yet. Zuckerberg said Meta intends to backfill the roles affected in 2025 or hire new employees to fill the vacancies left by those let go by the end of the year.

    Related: 'Going to Be an Intense Year': Meta Is Laying Off More Than 3,000 as CEO Mark Zuckerberg Calls for 'Extensive Performance-Based Cuts' — Read the Memo

    Still, Meta isn't the first Big Tech company to tout AI's coding capabilities. On an October earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that more than a quarter of all new code at Google is "generated by AI, then reviewed and accepted by our engineers."

    "This helps our engineers do more and move faster," Pichai said.

    And it's not just tech — banks are using AI to replace human work too. In March, JPMorgan Chase claimed that its free cash flow intelligence AI tool helped cut manual human work by 90%. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon stated in July that AI would eliminate jobs at the bank, especially in the customer service department, but would add jobs too.

    According to a June survey conducted by Duke University and the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Richmond, more than 60% of large U.S. companies plan to use AI within a year to take over tasks previously completed by human workers.

    Sherin Shibu

    Entrepreneur Staff

    News Reporter

    Sherin Shibu is a business news reporter at Entrepreneur.com. She previously worked for PCMag, Business Insider, The Messenger, and ZDNET as a reporter and copyeditor. Her areas of coverage encompass tech, business, strategy, finance, and even space. She is a Columbia University graduate.

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