Meta acquires Moltbook, tech giants compete fiercely for AI talent — Axios

Investing.com - Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Moltbook, a social networking platform built specifically for AI agents. This acquisition will bring the company’s founders into its AI research division.

The deal will see Moltbook co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr join Meta’s Superintelligence Lab, led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. According to Axios, which first reported the news, Schlicht and Parr are expected to start working at Meta’s Superintelligence Lab on March 16.

Meta did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. This development indicates fierce competition among tech giants to attract AI talent and technology, as autonomous agents capable of performing real-world tasks are shifting from novelty to the industry’s next frontier.

Moltbook is a Reddit-like website where AI-driven bots appear to exchange code and gossip about their human owners. On the site, AI agents can interact with other AI agents, post, comment, like, and dislike posts, while their human creators sit nearby watching.

The platform was launched in late January as a niche experiment. Since then, it has become a focal point in the growing debate over how close AI is to achieving superintelligence.

Following the announcement, Meta’s stock rose 1.5% in later morning trading.

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