The social media giant is spending hundreds of billions of dollars in a bid to catch up in a fast-moving AI race
Meta Platforms Inc. released its most powerful artificial intelligence model yet, with its chief AI officer saying its capabilities are edging closer to top competitors.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Developers on Wednesday will be able to access and pay for Muse Spark 1.3, an updated version of its most advanced model, the company said. It will soon roll out the update to users of Meta’s social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, as well as Meta AI.
“This is our biggest jump so far on model performance,” Meta’s chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said in an interview on Wednesday, pointing to advancements in the model’s coding and agentic capabilities, or ability to complete tasks on behalf of human users. Wang said the update put Meta on par with recently released AI models from its rivals OpenAI and Anthropic.
Breaking business news, incisive views, must-reads and market signals. Weekdays by 9 a.m.
By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Posthaste will soon be in your inbox.
We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again
Interested in more newsletters? Browse here.
Wang said Muse Spark 1.3 is “competitive” with Anthropic’s model, Claude Fable 5.1, and “better than” OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol, particularly when it comes to coding, though OpenAI will soon be releasing a new, even more advanced model known as Astra. In his opinion, Meta’s model outperforms “any of the current Chinese models out there.”
It can be difficult to compare AI models, as some are better at some tasks and worse at others, and benchmarking parameters can be gamed and aren’t necessarily reflective of how the technology performs in the real world.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently wrote a public note explaining the importance of making AI development more open and accessible. But Meta needs to balance those goals against returns on its massive investment in AI infrastructure and talent.
