Meta (academic company)

Last updated
Meta ULC
Founded2009
FoundersSam Molyneux, Amy Molyneux
DefunctMarch 31, 2022 (2022-03-31)
Headquarters
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Area served
Academia, government, publishing, industry
ServicesScientific knowledge network powered by machine intelligence
Number of employees
350
Website meta.org

Meta was a Canadian artificial intelligence company that specialized in analyzing and organizing knowledge from the text of scientific literature using machine learning. Founded in 2010 by siblings Sam Molyneux and Amy Molyneux in Toronto, Canada, and backed by institutional venture capital investors, the company developed AI-powered tools. [1] Meta's assets were later transferred to Facebook Inc. to enable its rebranding to Meta Platforms Inc. in 2021 [2] by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and shut down in 2021, effective in 2022. [3]

Contents

History

History Founding and Early Development

Meta Inc. was founded initially as Sciencescape Inc., in Toronto. The idea for the company emerged from Sam Molyneux's experience as a cancer genomics researcher when he discovered that similar research findings had been published while he was working on related projects. [4] [5]

The company initially focused on developing AI-powered knowledge tools to help researchers navigate the overwhelming volume of scientific publications. The platform was designed to address information overload in modern scientific research. [6] [7]

Beginning

Meta Inc., formerly Sciencescape Inc., [8] was founded in 2010 by Sam and Amy Molyneux. Before co-founding Meta, Sam Molyneux studied cancer genomics at the Ontario Cancer Institute at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. [9] [10] The service was developed with the intention of curating the millions of articles in the area of academic publishing. [11] [12] [13] [10] [14] [15]

The company was headquartered in Redwood City, California [16] (formerly Toronto, Ontario, Canada [11] ) and operated Meta Science, a literature discovery platform. [12] [13] [9]

As of September 2016, Meta had analyzed over 26 million papers and profiled 14 million researchers. [17] Using natural language processing, Meta scans articles - as well as the millions of articles stored in open-access repositories - collecting information about authors, citations and topics. Participating publishers receive exposure for their journals in return. [18] These include the American Medical Association, BioMed Central, Elsevier, Karger, SAGE Publishing, Taylor & Francis, Wolters Kluwer, and the Royal Society. [19] [20] The technology for the platform was developed via a joint partnership between Meta and SRI International. [21]

IARPA FUSE Program Commercialization

Meta Inc.'s technology foundation was significantly enhanced through its commercialization of SRI International’s machine learning research developed under the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) Foresight and Understanding from Scientific Exposition (FUSE) program. [22]

Merge with Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Meta merged with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in 2017, marking the Initiative's first acquisition. [23]

Shutdown

On October 28, 2021, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced the sunset of Meta, with a proposed shutdown date of March 31, 2022. [3]

Features and specifications

Meta includes coverage of the biomedical sciences with real-time updates from PubMed and other sources. [24] The website provides access to over 22 million papers with publication dates as early as the 1800s. [14] [15] By sifting through papers and learning from user behavior, the service pinpoints key pieces of research and provides relevant search results. [12] Meta also provides visualizations about a field of research by organizing papers by their date of publication and citation count and then presenting the information in a way that allows users to quickly identify key historical papers. [9]

The Meta Science research platform uses algorithms that allow users to sort new publications according to subject matter. [11] Users can subscribe to feeds for areas of research including biology, genes, diseases, genetic disorders, drugs, people, labs & institutes, and journals. [11] [10] [25]

References

  1. ↑ Constine, Josh (2017-01-23). "Chan Zuckerberg Initiative acquires and will free up science search engine Meta". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  2. ↑ Jr, Edward Ongweso (2021-10-29). "Zuckerberg's Foundation Kills 'Meta' Science Company on Day of Facebook Rebrand". VICE. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  3. 1 2 Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative, Meta Transition , retrieved October 28, 2021
  4. ↑ "Sciencescape: a new tool to bolster scientific discovery – IMMPress Magazine". 2014-06-09. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  5. ↑ "bizjournals". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  6. ↑ "Meta Inc. rode a wild rollercoaster of a startup, and then Chan Zuckerberg came along". financialpost. Archived from the original on 2022-05-20. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  7. ↑ Galang, Jessica (2016-03-31). "Meta is trying to save scientists from information overload | BetaKit" . Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  8. ↑ "Meta Launches Universal Machine Intelligence Platform to Unite the Fragmented Scientific Information Ecosystem". MarketWatch. November 3, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 The Data Visualizers, MaRS Commons Magazine, retrieved January 12, 2014
  10. 1 2 3 Mashoka Maimona (June 13, 2013), Tech companies make final pitches at Extreme Startups 2013 demo day, Financial Post, retrieved January 12, 2014
  11. 1 2 3 4 Darrell Etherington (June 16, 2013), Sciencescape Wants To Solve Academic Research Discoverability, Deal With The Noise Problem, TechCrunch, retrieved January 12, 2014
  12. 1 2 3 Sciencescape aims to sift through snowballing science research, Wired.co.uk, retrieved January 12, 2014
  13. 1 2 Candice So (June 13, 2013), Sciencescape cataloguing research papers everywhere, one essay at a time, itbusiness.ca, retrieved January 12, 2014
  14. 1 2 Hazman Aziz (June 26, 2013), Sciencescape -- A new kid on the block, Hazman Labs, inc, archived from the original on July 3, 2013, retrieved January 12, 2014
  15. 1 2 Vaibhav (June 18, 2013), Sciencescape in the Future of Scientific Research, TechnoGiants, retrieved January 12, 2014
  16. ↑ Chan Zuckerberg Initiative signs lease in Lane Partners' new Redwood City building, San Francisco Business Times, January 25, 2017, retrieved October 31, 2018
  17. ↑ About Meta, Meta, September 13, 2016, retrieved September 13, 2016
  18. ↑ Carl Straumsheim (May 10, 2016), Predictive Analytics for Publishing, Inside Higher Ed, retrieved September 12, 2016
  19. ↑ Teri Tan (April 29, 2016), Digital Solutions in India 2016: Big Data and AI with Meta, Publishers Weekly, retrieved September 12, 2016
  20. ↑ Partners, Meta, September 12, 2016, retrieved September 12, 2016
  21. ↑ "Chan Zuckerberg Initiative makes first buy, a Canadian artificial intelligence startup". www.bizjournals.com. January 26, 2017. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  22. ↑ "Meta and SRI International Announce Agreement to Bring IARPA FUSE Predictive Intelligence to the Scientific World". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on 2025-06-01. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  23. ↑ "Chan Zuckerberg Initiative acquires and will free up science search engine Meta – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. 23 January 2017. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  24. ↑ Darrell Etherington (June 13, 2013), Extreme Startups Demo Day Wrap Up: Canadian Startups Make A Strong Showing, TechCrunch, retrieved January 12, 2014
  25. ↑ Under The Hood, Sciencescape.org, retrieved January 12, 2014
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