LeCun had been at Zuckerberg’s company for over a decade, where, as chief AI scientist, he had the freedom to carry out all kinds of esoteric AI research without necessarily having to worry about developing a profitable product. The Llama models “changed the entire industry,” LeCun said, and were a hit with AI researchers because of their power and open source nature. An entirely different architecture called “world models” which seek to understand the physical world, not just language, is needed to make the next major leap in the tech. According to LeCun, Zuckerberg actually liked LeCun’s world model research, but didn’t put his money where his mouth is. The move raised questions from the get-go, including whether Wang, 29, had the experience and background to build massive AI models, something his company didn’t do.