Earlier quoted context omitted.
But his responsability.
What is responsibility if you can afford good lawyers?
So you mean that Mark Zuckerberg has always been a peer to YLC in terms of responsibility towards Meta's shareholders?
Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
321–330 of 680 posts
Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
#322Making LeCun report to Wang was the most boneheaded move imaginable. But… I suppose Zuckerberg knows what he wants, which is AI slopware and not truly groundbreaking foundation models.
In industry research, someone in a chief position like LeCun should know how to balance long-term research with short-term projects. However, for whatever reason, he consistently shows hostility toward LLMs and engineering projects, even though Llama and PyTorch are two of the most influential projects from Meta AI. His attitude doesn’t really match what is expected from a Chief position at a product company like Fac…
Lecun has also consistently tried to redefine open source away from the open source definition.
Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
In industry research, someone in a chief position like LeCun should know how to balance long-term research with short-term projects. However, for whatever reason, he consistently shows hostility toward LLMs and engineering projects, even though Llama and PyTorch are two of the most influential projects from Meta AI. His attitude doesn’t really match what is expected from a Chief position at a product company like Fac…
Product companies with deprioritized R&D wings are the first ones to die.
Hasn't happened to Google yet
Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
These are the types that want academic freedom in a cut-throat industry setup and conversely never fit into academia because their profiles and growth ambitions far exceed what an academic research lab can afford (barring some marquee names). It's an unfortunate paradox.
More importantly even if you do want it, and there are business situations that support your ambitions. You still have to do get into the managerial powerplay, which quite honestly takes a separate kind of skill set, time and effort. Which Im guessing the academia oriented people aren't willing to do. Its pretty much dog eat dog at top management positions. Its not exactly a space for free thinking timelines.
> Its not exactly a space for free thinking timelines.
Same goes for academia. People's visions compete for other people's financial budgets, time and other resources. Some dogs get to eat, study, train at the frontier and with top tools in top environments while the others hope to find a good enough shelter.
Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
#325Most of the folks on this topic are focused on Meta and Yann’s departure. But, I’m seeing something different. This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. Researchers are getting rewarded with VC money to try what remains a science experiment. That used to be a bad word and now that gets rewarded with billions of dollars in valuation.
> This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. You must have not lived through the dot com boom. There was almost everything under the sun was being sold under a website that started with an "e". ePets, ePlants, eStamps, eUnderwear, eStocks, eCards, eInvites.....
The Pets.ai Super Bowl commercial will trigger the burst.
Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
#326Most of the folks on this topic are focused on Meta and Yann’s departure. But, I’m seeing something different. This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. Researchers are getting rewarded with VC money to try what remains a science experiment. That used to be a bad word and now that gets rewarded with billions of dollars in valuation.
VC is in a bubble.
Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
#327Most of the folks on this topic are focused on Meta and Yann’s departure. But, I’m seeing something different. This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. Researchers are getting rewarded with VC money to try what remains a science experiment. That used to be a bad word and now that gets rewarded with billions of dollars in valuation.
> This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. You must have not lived through the dot com boom. There was almost everything under the sun was being sold under a website that started with an "e". ePets, ePlants, eStamps, eUnderwear, eStocks, eCards, eInvites.....
That was certainly a bubble but I don't think pets.com was doing a research experiment.
From what I recall there were some biotech stocks in that era that do fit the bill.
Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
Man, why did no one tell the people who invented bronze that they weren’t allowed to do it until they had a correct definition for metals and understood how they worked? I guess the person saying something can’t be done should stay out of the way of the people doing it.
>> I guess the person saying something can’t be done should stay out of the way of the people doing it. I'll happily step out of the way once someone simply tells me what it is you're trying to accomplish. Until you can actually define it, you can't do "it".
no bro, others have done 'it' without even knowing what they were doing!
Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is someone else at Facebook who's pet projects do not get results...
If you hire a house cleaner to clean your house, and the cleaner didn't do well, would you eject yourself out of the house? You would not. You would change to a new cleaner.
But if we hire someone to deal on R&D to automate fully the house cleaning process, we might not necessarily expect the office to be maintained in clean state by the researchers themselves any time we enter the room.
Re: Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
He is also not very interested in LLMs, and that seems to be Zuck's top priority.
Yeah I think LeCun is underestimating the impact that LLM's and Diffusion models are going to have, even considering the huge impact they're already having. That's no problem as I'm sure whatever LeCun is working on is going to be amazing as well, but an enterprise like Facebook can't have their top researcher work on risky things when there's surefire paths to success still available.
not sure I agree. AI seems to be following the same 3-stage path of many inventions: innovation > adoption > diffusion. LeCun and co focus on the first, and LLMs in their current form appear to be incremental at improvements; we're still using the same basis from more than ten years ago. FB and industry are signalling a focus on harvesting the innovation and that could last - but also take - many years or decades. Your fundamental researchers are not interested (or the right people) in that position.