Ex-Google to Lead Meta's AI Research Lab

Meta is strengthening its AI research division with the appointment of Robert Fergus as the new head of the Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab. Fergus is returning to Meta, where he had previously been a research scientist before moving to Google DeepMind for about five years. He succeeds Joelle Pineau, who announced her departure from her role in a social media post after more than two years at the helm of Fair. "A huge thank you to Joelle for laying such a solid foundation," Fergus wrote on Linkedin, adding, "I look forward to working closely with the team again. Meta's commitment to Fair and long-term research remains unwavering."

Meta’s lab, which has been active since 2013, has been a key innovation hub in the development of the company’s early AI architectures, culminating in the creation of language models such as Llama 1 and Llama 2, competitors to OpenAI’s GPT. A recent Fortune report highlighted some of the challenges the organization has faced in recent years, most notably the migration of researchers to other realities, including startups and competing companies. Pineau herself had played a key role in the AI ​​strategy, helping to create the Llama models and the PyTorch platform, used by computer science developers.