Meta Launches Muse Spark From Superintelligence Labs But Early Benchmarks Disappoint Despite Massive Investment

Meta unveiled Muse Spark, its first model from the newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs, described as a natively multimodal reasoning model handling text, images, audio, and tool use. The model powered the Meta AI app to the No. 5 spot on the App Store following launch and represents Meta's shift toward proprietary models alongside its open-source Llama series. However, early benchmark comparisons on GPQA and HealthBench show Muse Spark underperforming against virtually all major rivals, raising questions about Meta's $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI and its broader AI catch-up strategy. Meta also announced a $21 billion expansion of its cloud capacity partnership with CoreWeave through 2032.