Zuckerberg Chases AI as Metaverse Dreams Fade, Facebook Turns 20 (3)

In the summer of 2021, during a private moment at the Allen & Co. conference in the Idaho mountains, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai complimented Mark Zuckerberg on a technological breakthrough by Facebook’s artificial intelligence team.

Pichai’s comment was exactly the kind of thing Zuckerberg likes to hear. For one of the most prominent people in Silicon Valley, the co-founder and CEO of Meta Platforms Inc. can be surprisingly touchy about getting recognition for being someone who actually makes technology. A decade earlier, a Hollywood blockbuster suggested that he stole the idea for Facebook, and many of his company’s ...