Meta’s chief AI scientist embarks on a new venture amid organizational shake-ups and a pivot toward large language models
Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist and a pioneer in artificial intelligence, is leaving the company to start his own AI startup, a Meta spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.
LeCun announced the move on Facebook, sharing that his new venture will focus on world-model research, an area he has been exploring for years. Meta will partner with LeCun on the startup, though details about the collaboration remain sparse.
The departure comes amid instability within Meta’s AI division. Over the past few months, the company has reorganized its AI efforts under the new Superintelligence Labs division, led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, and hired dozens of top researchers and engineers from rivals. The reshuffle created tensions between long-standing researchers and new hires, some of whom have threatened to leave.
In August, Meta executed its largest AI reorganization to date, creating four specialized teams focusing on research, training, products, and infrastructure. This shift aligns with Meta’s broader strategy to compete with OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic in building large-scale AI models. However, internal reactions to Llama 4 were muted, and several researchers, including Soumith Chintala, the creator of PyTorch, recently left for new ventures.
LeCun’s move isn’t entirely unexpected. He has long criticized an overreliance on large language models (LLMs), advocating instead for his JEPA approach, which trains AI to understand and predict the physical world using images and sensory data rather than text. Meta, by contrast, has increasingly focused on scaling LLMs for commercial applications.
Conclusion:
Yann LeCun’s departure marks a significant shift in the AI landscape, highlighting the ongoing tension between research-driven innovation and commercial AI development. His new startup could become a major player in shaping the future of AI research. Follow, share, and comment to stay updated on breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and startup innovation.
