Amid growing investments and ambition in artificial intelligence, Meta recently appointed a second chief AI scientist to its leadership team, a move that prompted questions about the role of long-time Meta AI visionary Yann LeCun. In response, Yann LeCun has clarified his continuing and evolving responsibilities at Meta, shedding light on the company’s AI strategy and leadership structure in 2025.
In mid-2025, Meta announced the hiring of a distinguished AI researcher as an additional chief AI scientist, signaling an expansion of its AI leadership to accelerate innovation across multiple domains such as generative AI, immersive experiences, and large-scale machine learning models.
This unprecedented move having two chief AI scientists simultaneously reflects Meta’s ambition to diversify and deepen its AI research capabilities amid fierce industry competition.
Yann LeCun, who has been Meta’s chief AI scientist since 2013 and is widely recognized for pioneering work in deep learning and neural networks, emphasized that his role remains vital and distinct despite the new appointment.
According to LeCun, he continues to lead Meta’s fundamental AI research agenda, focusing on the development of foundational models, unsupervised learning techniques, and advancing the theoretical underpinnings of artificial intelligence. His work emphasizes pushing the boundaries of what AI systems can learn autonomously with minimal supervision.
Moreover, LeCun highlighted that the presence of an additional chief AI scientist complements rather than competes with his responsibilities. The two leaders will focus on different aspects and applications of AI, fostering collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas across Meta’s vast research and product teams.
Meta’s decision to have multiple chief AI scientists is in line with broader industry trends where large tech companies increasingly invest in segmented AI leadership to address diverse research needs and rapidly evolving AI landscapes.
AI researchers and professionals note that such arrangements can enable Meta to navigate the complexities of scaling AI responsibly while accelerating the deployment of transformative technologies across its platforms like Meta Horizon Worlds, Reels, and AI assistant projects.
Yann LeCun and the newly appointed chief AI scientist are expected to jointly shape key AI research milestones and applications for 2025 and beyond. Their collaborative leadership is likely to influence Meta’s AI ethics policies, investment in open research, and engagement with the wider AI community.