A global figure in artificial intelligence, French researcher Yann LeCun is preparing to turn the page on Meta. According to information from Financial TimesAccording to several sources close to the matter, the engineer will soon leave the American group to create his own company dedicated to AI research and development.
A French AI pioneer disagrees with Meta's strategy
Yann LeCun, who joined Facebook in 2013 (which became Meta in 2021), was appointed global head of artificial intelligence research. Winner of the prestigious Turing Award in 2018, which he shared with Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton, he is considered one of the founders of deep learning, an approach based on artificial neural networks. But in recent years, the French researcher has been critical of the direction taken by the group led by... Mark ZuckerbergIn contrast to the logic of grand language models, which underpin tools like ChatGPT, Yann LeCun advocates a different vision: that of an artificial intelligence capable of understanding and reasoning rather than simply accumulating data. For him, current models remain "limited" and do not represent the path to truly intelligent AI.
A break in the context of internal reorganization
This departure comes as Meta has undertaken a profound reorientation of its AI strategy. In recent months, Mark Zuckerberg has created a new entity called Superintelligence LabsThis new structure brings together all of the group's research teams and computing infrastructure. At its head, he appointed Alexandr Wang, an American entrepreneur and co-founder of the startup Scale AI. According to several industry observers, Yann LeCun reportedly resented this reorganization, which placed him under Wang's direct supervision, thus breaking with the autonomy he had previously enjoyed.
A new entrepreneurial adventure in the works
At 65, the former New York University professor plans to launch his own research firm to pursue independent work focused on what he calls "self-supervised artificial intelligence." This model aims to replicate how humans learn from the world without constant supervision. Yann LeCun's departure, which has not yet been officially commented on by Meta, symbolizes a turning point for the American company. It also marks a key moment for French research, where he remains one of the most internationally respected figures.
