Former Meta Scientist Says Mark Zuckerberg's New AI Chief Is 'Young' And 'Inexperienced'—Warns 'Lot Of People' Who Haven't Yet Left Meta 'Will Leave'
Former Meta scientist and AI pioneer Yann LeCun has openly questioned Meta Platforms Inc.'s (NASDAQ:META) AI leadership overhaul. In an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday, LeCun described Wang, 28, as "young" and "inexperienced," arguing that the Scale AI co-founder lacks a deep understanding of how elite AI research teams operate. LeCun said Alexandr Wang is intelligent and learns quickly, but does not yet grasp what attracts — or alienates — top researchers. Don't Miss: The AI Marketing Platform Backed by Insiders from Google, Meta, and Amazon — Invest at $0.85/Share Missed Tesla? EnergyX Is Tackling the Next $200 Billion Opportunity — Lithium He added that while Wang briefly became his boss following Meta's AI reorganization, he was not actively directing his work. He noted that people usually should not tell senior scientists like him how to conduct their work. Meta did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comments. Wang's appointment followed Meta's $14 billion investment in Scale AI, part of Mark Zuckerberg's aggressive push to regain momentum in the AI race. LeCun said the move came after Zuckerberg grew frustrated with slow progress on Meta's flagship open-source model, Llama. According to LeCun, internal confidence eroded after Meta was criticized for allegedly overstating benchmark results tied to Llama 4. He said the controversy angered Zuckerberg and led him to sideline much of Meta's existing generative AI organization. He said that "a lot of people" have already left Meta and those who haven't yet "will leave." Trending: An EA Co-Founder Shapes This VC Backed Marketplace—Now You Can Invest in Gaming's Next Big Platform Before the Raise Ends 1/19 LeCun, who announced in November that he is leaving Meta to launch a new startup called Advanced Machine Intelligence, also reiterated his long-held belief that large language models are fundamentally limited. He said people at Meta would like him not to call LLMs “a dead end,” but he will not change his mind just because others think he is wrong. He said true artificial intelligence will require new architectures beyond LLMs, even if that view clashes with Meta's current priorities. See Also: If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it? In December, Meta ramped up its AI push by acquiring Manus AI, a fast-rising Chinese startup specializing in autonomous agents.
