Chicago – February 08, 2026
Yann LeCun, Meta’s longtime chief artificial intelligence scientist, said last November that he planned to leave the company after more than a decade. In later interviews, including one referenced by Futurism, he openly criticized Meta’s approach to AI and the direction the company was taking.
LeCun joined Meta in 2013, when the company prioritized open-ended research over rapid product launches. For years, he had unusual freedom to explore ideas without pressure to turn them into revenue. As he later told the Financial Times, “Money was clearly not going to be a problem.”
That changed after the release of ChatGPT in late 2022. The sudden surge in competition pushed Meta — along with Google and OpenAI — toward faster development, tighter secrecy, and large-scale commercial deployment. LeCun has warned that this shift favors speed over caution, increasing the risk of unreliable systems, misuse, and unintended consequences.
