Meta's chief AI scientist leaves, the company's AI strategy accelerates restructuring

Yann LeCun, Meta's chief artificial intelligence scientist, is planning to leave the social media giant to start his own startup, according to the Financial Times, at a time when Zuckerberg is looking to overhaul the company's AI operations. LeCun, the Turing Award-winning scientist and considered one of the pioneers of modern AI, has informed colleagues that he will be leaving the Silicon Valley group in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter. The French-American scientist is still in the early stages of negotiations to raise funds for his new venture capital, one of the people said. LeCun's departure marks the latest in a string of departures, leadership and organizational reshuffles for Meta in a tumultuous year. Joelle Pineau, vice president of AI research, left in May and recently joined Cohere, a Canadian AI startup. Last month, the company also laid off about 600 employees in its AI research unit to cut costs, eliminate bureaucracy, and release products faster.