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Yann LeCun, a professor at New York University who is highly respected as one of the top four pioneers in the area of artificial intelligence (AI), is said to be considering departing from Meta, the company that owns Facebook, and launching a new venture.

The UK’s Financial Times (FT), referencing sources, reported on the 11th, local time, that LeCun is exploring funding strategies and other issues as he prepares to leave Meta in the coming months to establish a new company.

Professor LeCun is an expert in artificial intelligence who has received the Turing Award, frequently called the Nobel Prize of computer science. From 2013 onwards, he has held the position of vice president with the title of “Chief AI Scientist” at Facebook, overseeing the Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) laboratory. LeCun is considered a “boomer,” or a proponent of development, who believes that AI should strive to reach its full potential in aiding humans, although he favors steady advancement rather than abrupt change.

The cause of his exit is linked to Meta’s restructuring of its AI approach. Meta recently felt it had lagged behind rivals like OpenAI and Google, prompting a shift in focus from long-term research at FAIR to creating large language models (LLMs) and speeding up the launch of products. In June, Meta recruited Alexander Wang, the founder of data labeling company Scale AI, as “Chief AI Officer,” CAIO, and assigned him to oversee the “superintelligence” division. Throughout this change, LeCun moved from reporting directly to the Chief Product Officer (CPO) to reporting to Alexander Wang.

LeCun has repeatedly expressed his disapproval of the approach that focuses heavily on large language models. He stated, “Present-day language models are only helpful but lack the ability to reason or plan as humans do,” and highlighted that a “world model” which can comprehend the physical environment is essential for reaching human-level artificial intelligence. It is reported that the new company LeCun is backing will also center around research on world models.