In an interview on the Chinese video channel Silicon Valley 101 broadcast on Wednesday, Tian – previously research scientist director at Meta FAIR, the Facebook parent’s legacy Fundamental AI Research team – said limited computing resources had triggered internal conflicts inside the group, as large language models (LLMs) became a major focus of AI development around the world.
Tian’s assessment appeared to substantiate why Meta – which also owns Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads – let go of around 600 employees from its AI research unit, months after the company revamped its strategy through the acquisition of data-annotation firm Scale AI and a poaching spree from rival AI laboratories. Meta confirmed the lay-offs, which included Tian, last month.
While Tian’s interview was conducted late last month, its broadcast coincided with a report by The Financial Times that Meta’s chief AI scientist and FAIR founder, Yann LeCun, was leaving the Menlo Park, California-based company amid internal tensions.
LeCun, who became a Turing Award laureate in 2018 for his work on deep learning, planned to depart to launch his own start-up, according to the report.
Meta’s restructuring kept the newly formed Super Intelligence Lab – led by the firm’s new Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, formerly CEO and the founder of Scale AI – largely untouched, which signalled not only a change of strategy but also increased competition for resources inside the company.
