Meta’s ‘godfather of AI’ departs the company to form his own startup — Turing award winner Yann LeCun advocates for the development of World Models over LLMs

Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, is leaving to found his own startup in the coming months, according to a new report. This is a huge blow for Meta, which went on an aggressive, expensive hiring spree in 2025 to build out its AI development divisions with key talent, often attempting to poach them from competitors. A 12-year veteran of the company, LeCun has been instrumental in Meta’s AI research throughout many of the company’s eras, but now seems set to strike out on his own to develop what he…