Pocket FM taps former Meta AI scientist Vasu Sharma to lead AI push

Pocket FM has announced the hiring of Vasu Sharma, a former AI researcher at Meta Platforms, to take the helm of its artificial intelligence initiatives. This move signifies the audio-series platform's commitment to creating a global entertainment ecosystem driven by AI technology. Sharma, who previously contributed to Meta’s Facebook AI Research (FAIR) division, will oversee the company’s AI research, foundation-model development, and innovative applications in storytelling, content production, and localization. He will report directly to Prateek Dixit, co-founder of Pocket FM. This strategic appointment aligns with Pocket FM's ambition to enhance story creation, adaptation, and distribution processes across various languages and markets. Positioning itself as an “AI-first entertainment company,” Pocket FM aims to integrate human creativity with advanced language models and multimodal AI systems. During his tenure at Meta, Sharma was instrumental in developing key AI programs, including the Llama family of large language models and next-gen audio-video foundation models. Expressing his enthusiasm, Sharma stated, “Pocket FM sits at a rare intersection of AI, creativity, and global storytelling. The chance to create cutting-edge fiction-native systems and tools for creators is incredibly thrilling.” His responsibilities will include advancing Pocket FM’s proprietary LLMs and enhancing the AI CoPilot platform, which supports writers in story ideation, drafting, plot design, editing, emotional toning, and multi-language adaptation. The company is optimistic that leveraging AI can drastically lower production costs and accelerate the development of long-form audio content while localizing popular narratives for worldwide audiences. Prateek Dixit remarked, “Vasu brings world-class AI research experience, and his knowledge of multimodal and long-form language models will greatly propel our creator-centric AI vision.” Founded in India, Pocket FM is recognized as one of the largest audio-series platforms globally, boasting over 250 million listeners. The platform has cultivated a creator community of more than 300,000 writers and offers a vast library of over 100,000 audio series across genres like romance, thriller, fantasy, and drama. The company is aggressively expanding into international markets, including the US and Europe, as it seeks to establish a global pipeline for intellectual property driven by AI-enabled storytelling.