Meta’s Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun is set to depart the company after more than 12 years, marking the end of a significant chapter in Meta’s AI journey. The French-American computer scientist, who has been a central figure in shaping Meta’s artificial intelligence research, has announced that he will be launching a new venture to carry forward the Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) research programme.
LeCun, who will remain with Meta until the end of this year, confirmed the development in a social media post. He noted that he spent five years as the founding director of FAIR (Facebook AI Research) and seven years as Meta’s Chief AI Scientist, calling the experience “fantastic.”
In his post, he wrote:
“As many of you have heard through rumors or recent media articles, I am planning to leave Meta after 12 fantastic years: 5 years as founding director of FAIR and 7 years as Chief AI Scientist.” He added that FAIR’s contribution to Meta, the AI community, and the world at large has been immense, saying the lab’s creation remains his “proudest non-technical accomplishment.”
LeCun further announced the creation of a startup focused on continuing the AMI research initiative he has been advancing with collaborators at FAIR, NYU, and other institutions. He wrote, “I am creating a startup company to continue the Advanced Machine Intelligence research program (AMI) I have been pursuing over the last several years with colleagues at FAIR, at NYU, and beyond. The goal of the startup is to bring about the next big revolution in AI: systems that understand the physical world, have persistent memory, can reason, and can plan complex action sequences.”
He also expressed gratitude toward Meta leadership for supporting both FAIR and the AMI programme, “I am extremely grateful to Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Bosworth (Boz), Chris Cox, and Mike Schroepfer for their support of FAIR, and for their support of the AMI program over the last few years. Because of their continued interest and support, Meta will be a partner of the new company.”
According to LeCun, the AMI programme could have wide-ranging applications across various industries, some aligned with Meta’s business, and many beyond it. Establishing an independent company, he said, will help maximize the programme’s overall impact.
He concluded by noting he will share more details about the new venture in due time. Until then, he will continue with Meta through the end of the year.
