Meta AI Chief Yann LeCun Reportedly Leaving to Launch His Own AI Startup

Meta may soon lose one of its most renowned AI leaders. Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta, reportedly plans to leave to start his own AI company, according to the Financial Times, citing anonymous sources.

LeCun is also a professor at New York University, a senior researcher at Meta, and a recipient of the Turing Award. He plans to leave in the coming months and is reportedly in talks to raise capital for a startup focused on world models.

A world model is an AI system that builds an internal understanding of its environment. It can simulate cause-and-effect scenarios to predict outcomes. Companies like Google DeepMind and startups like World Labs are also developing world models.

Timing and Meta’s AI Strategy

LeCun’s departure comes at a pivotal time for Meta’s AI development. The company has recently overhauled its AI strategy to compete with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

Meta has hired over 50 engineers and researchers from rival firms to build a new AI unit called Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). In June, Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI, a data-labeling vendor, and appointed its CEO, Alexandr Wang, to lead MSL.

Sources indicate that these changes have caused some disruption. New talent is frustrated by Meta’s bureaucracy, and the previous generative AI team has seen its scope limited.

FAIR vs. MSL

LeCun’s work at Meta’s FAIR (Fundamental AI Research) division has focused on long-term AI research. FAIR explores techniques that might be usable five to ten years in the future.

Meanwhile, MSL focuses on short-term product-driven AI and superintelligence initiatives. LeCun’s long-term research has been overshadowed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s push to overhaul AI after Llama 4 failed to compete with rival models.

LeCun’s AI Philosophy

LeCun has been critical of how large language models (LLMs) are marketed. He has openly questioned claims that AI can solve all human problems.

“Before urgently figuring out how to control AI systems much smarter than us, we need to have the beginning of a hint of a design for a system smarter than a house cat,” he tweeted.

Meta has not commented outside regular business hours.

FAQs

1. Who is Yann LeCun?

LeCun is Meta’s chief AI scientist, a professor at NYU, and a Turing Award winner recognized for his work in AI.

2. Why is LeCun leaving Meta?

He plans to start his own AI startup to focus on long-term research, especially world models.

3. What are world models in AI?

World models are AI systems that understand their environment and simulate cause-and-effect scenarios to predict outcomes.

4. What is FAIR, and how is it different from MSL?

FAIR focuses on long-term AI research, while MSL is product-driven, aiming for short-term AI applications and superintelligence projects.