Meta is assembling an elite new AI lab for its recommendations division

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

2026-04-01T09:00:02.431Z

• Meta quietly reorganized its recommendations team last fall to form an elite AI research lab.

• Yang Song, a former TikTok executive, heads the unit.

• The crucial Meta division has been adding top talent from OpenAI, Google, and Amazon.

Meta is building a team of elite AI researchers to optimize the powerful algorithms that keep people's eyeballs glued to Facebook and Instagram, according to job listings and LinkedIn posts.

The team, MRS Research, is part of Meta Recommendation Systems, which runs the home feeds in Meta's apps, and the unit has already drawn talent from TikTok and Amazon. MRS builds the algorithms that determine what kinds of content people see and works closely with the company's Ads division.

MRS Research formed as part of an October reorganization within MRS to bring relevant teams together, a Meta spokesperson said. Such a team had already existed under other forms over the past few years, they added.

MRS Research will focus on long-term AI research goals and publishing cutting-edge research to advance Meta's recommendation engine, according to a job description. It describes it as a "newly created org" that brings together world-class AI researchers and engineers to "leapfrog" current AI recommendation systems.

This latest push from Meta shows the company's intent to use AI to superpower its longtime cash cows, like ads.

Yang Song, Meta's vice president of recommendation research, oversees the effort. He joined in November 2025 after heading user growth and recommendation at TikTok. At the time, he posted on LinkedIn about being excited over "revolutionizing" Meta's recommendation systems with AI.

Shortly after Song joined, Amazon AI researcher Lihong Li also came aboard the MRS Research unit, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The overall MRS division recently added former OpenAI researcher Xiaolong Wang and Google researcher Fei Sha to its team, according to an academic paper and a LinkedIn post.

Meta declined to comment on specific AI talent at the company. Wang and Sha didn't respond to requests for comment.

The tech giant has been on an aggressive AI talent campaign since summer 2025, when it announced the new Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), led by Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI. MRS is not part of MSL, the Meta spokesperson said.

Meta also recently hired three AI researchers from the $12 billion startup Thinking Machines Lab, Business Insider previously reported.

Meta has been going all in on AI internally, rebranding employees in another division as "AI builders" and having staff vibe code new products.

Meta has long been exploring how to use new AI technology to improve the algorithms behind the company's lucrative apps. For example, in late 2025, it launched an AI model that it said delivers increased ad performance by serving more relevant ads to users.

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