A storm is brewing inside Meta as reports suggest that the company’s Chief Artificial Intelligence Scientist, Yann LeCun, is preparing to leave the social media giant to start his own venture.
Though LeCun is one of the most celebrated figures in the field of artificial intelligence and is said to be in early talks to raise funds for his new startup, the news has created intense debate online.
A growing number of netizens and industry insiders are now blaming Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and newly appointed AI head Alexandr Wang for what they describe as an “avoidable fallout.”
“Zuckerberg’s actions are responsible,” says Hyperbolic CEO
Yuchen Jin, CEO and CTO of Hyperbolic, directly accused Zuckerberg of driving LeCun away. In a post on X, Jin alleged that “Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s actions are responsible for this decision made by the company’s long-time chief AI scientist.”
Jin’s comments come amid speculation of growing internal tensions within Meta following the company’s aggressive restructuring of its AI division.
According to Jin, LeCun’s departure was not a sudden move but rather the “inevitable outcome” of decisions made earlier this year.
At the center of the controversy is Meta’s $15 billion investment in Scale AI, followed by the appointment of Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to lead a newly created division, Superintelligence Labs.
The restructuring meant that LeCun now reports to Wang, rather than to Meta’s Chief Product Officer Chris Cox.
This shift, Jin argued, showed a change in Meta’s AI priorities, moving away from foundational AI research and toward rapid, product-driven development.
“Yann never believed in LLM-to-AGI. Zuck’s patience ran out,” Jin wrote, referencing LeCun’s long-held skepticism about using large language models (LLMs) as a direct path to artificial general intelligence.
‘Zuckerberg too cowardly to fire Wang’
Netizens on TeamBlind slammed Wang and Zuckerberg over LeCunn’s potential exit. A user noted, “Zuckerberg too coward to fire Wang and make himself look like an idiot for overpaying these people.” Another added, “Alternative theory, this was a pre-planned move for Yann’s exit for a softer landing. First find a replacement, put the replacement above Yann, and then let Yann exit.”
“Wang isn’t replacing Yann. Yann is a lone researcher, not executive, there is no overlap between what he did and what Wang does. This is definitely a “firing”. The new boss doesn’t think that LeCunn is worth his salary and removed him. Of course, at this level no one is fired per se, they all get the opportunity to leave gracefully,” noted a netizen.
“Meta is, and willl always be, a Chinese company,” stated a user. “If the messiah himself worked at Meta and dared to question LLMs, he would be fired. The owners of capital have sunk trillions into a technology worth less than the smartwatch industry, and they cannot be told that it’s a dead end,” wrote another.
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