Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB) is losing its chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, after more than a decade at the company.
LeCun, a pioneer in AI and a recipient of the Turing Award, announced he will leave Meta to start his own company focused on developing AI systems capable of understanding the physical world, reasoning, and planning complex actions.
LeCun joined Meta 12 years ago and spent five years as founding director of the company’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab, followed by seven years as chief AI scientist.
During his time at Meta, LeCun advanced deep learning and witnessed multiple waves of interest in AI, including the recent surge in generative AI technologies driven by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
In a series of posts on Threads, he thanked Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and described FAIR as his “proudest non-technical accomplishment,” noting the lab’s contributions to AI research and the broader tech community.
LeCun’s departure comes amid a period of restructuring within Meta’s AI division, including challenges with the Llama 4 model, as well as other recent key exits across its AI and business teams.