Yann LeCun, AI Pioneer, Departs Meta to Launch New AI Venture
AI Pioneer Yann LeCun Steps Away from Meta to Forge His Own Path
It seems that Yann LeCun, a giant in the world of Artificial Intelligence, is leaving Meta to start his own venture. According to reports, his goal is to push AI beyond what's currently possible, focusing on systems that can truly understand and interact with the physical world.
LeCun's vision involves AI with persistent memory, reasoning capabilities, and the ability to plan complex actions. This is quite different from the current trend of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, which LeCun has been openly skeptical about.
For those who don't know, LeCun is one of the "godfathers of AI," known for his work in deep learning. He joined Meta, back when it was still Facebook, in 2013. Initially, it wasn't clear how a social media company would use deep neural networks. Someone said back then that it would improve things like photo tagging and news feed ranking, but things have changed considerably since then.
However, as AI exploded in popularity, especially with the rise of ChatGPT, LeCun's views on AI safety and his focus on "world models" put him at odds with some within Meta. Apparently, Meta has decided to give more visibility to new hires, like Shengjia Zhao (co-creator of ChatGPT). LeCun believes that current AI systems are limited because they don't have a real understanding of the world. He even thinks they're dumber than cats!
His research explores AI models that can learn from sensory inputs, like video, and understand cause and effect. One example of this is V-JEPA-2, an AI model trained on videos of the physical world to model the causes and effects of actions.
Interestingly, Meta will reportedly partner with LeCun on his new company, which implies that they will have access to the new company's innovations. It's not clear how this partnership will work, but such collaborations are common in the AI world.
Ultimately, LeCun wants to pursue what he calls Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI). He believes that creating an independent entity is the best way to maximize its impact. It will be interesting to watch how this new venture unfolds and what kind of AI breakthroughs it leads to. After all, when someone like LeCun makes a move, it's bound to shake things up.
Source: Gizmodo