Yann LeCun set to leave Meta as he prepares new Advanced Machine Intelligence venture

Yann LeCun has announced plans to leave Meta at the end of the year to form a new startup centered on Advanced Machine Intelligence, following an update shared on social media.

Yann LeCun, Vice President and Chief AI Scientist at Meta, has taken to LinkedIn to confirm that he plans to leave the company after twelve years. Meta’s AI research is led through its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) division, which LeCun founded and previously directed.

LeCun said that he will remain at Meta until the end of the year while preparing to form a new startup focused on the Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) research program he has helped shape. In his post, LeCun wrote: “As many of you have heard through rumors or recent media articles, I am planning to leave Meta after 12 years: 5 years as founding director of FAIR and 7 years as Chief AI Scientist.”

He described FAIR’s impact on Meta and the broader AI sector as significant, adding that its creation is his “proudest non-technical accomplishment.” He said the AMI program has been developed with colleagues at FAIR, NYU, and partner institutions.

LeCun outlined that the new startup will pursue systems capable of understanding the physical world, maintaining persistent memory, reasoning, and planning complex action sequences. According to LeCun, the AMI program is intended to support applications that extend across multiple sectors, some aligned with Meta’s current work and others that will operate independently. He said Meta will be a partner in the new company due to its continued interest in the AMI research direction.

Meta leadership recognized for long-term support

LeCun acknowledged several Meta executives for backing both FAIR and AMI over many years.He wrote: “I am extremely grateful to Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Bosworth, Chris Cox, and Mike Schroepfer for their support of FAIR, and for their support of the AMI program over the last few years.” He added that their support has helped shape the future direction of the work.

LeCun said he will provide additional information about the new company at a later stage. For now, he plans to stay with Meta through the end of the year while finalizing the move. He closed his announcement by writing: “I will give some more details about the new company when the time comes. In the meantime, I’m sticking around Meta until the end of the year.”

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