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Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

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765 points MindBreaker2605 | 1 comments | 12 Nov 25 07:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.198s | source
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sebmellen ◴[12 Nov 25 07:57 UTC] No.45897467[source]▶
Making 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.
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ACCount37 ◴[12 Nov 25 09:06 UTC] No.45897970[source]▶
That was obviously him getting sidelined. And it's easy to see why.

LLMs get results. None of the Yann LeCun's pet projects do. He had ample time to prove that his approach is promising, and he didn't.

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chaoz_ ◴[12 Nov 25 11:10 UTC] No.45898749[source]▶
I agree. I never understood LeCun's statement that we need to pivot toward the visual aspects of things because the bitrate of text is low while visual input through the eye is high.

Text and languages contain structured information and encode a lot of real-world complexity (or it's "modelling" that).

Not saying we won't pivot to visual data or world simulations, but he was clearly not the type of person to compete with other LLM research labs, nor did he propose any alternative that could be used to create something interesting for end-users.

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1. ACCount37 ◴[12 Nov 25 11:15 UTC] No.45898776[source]▶
If LeCun's research has made Meta a powerhouse of video generation or general purpose robotics - the two promising directions that benefit from working with visual I/O and world modeling as LeCun sees it - it could have been a justified detour.

But that sure didn't happen.