Meta's chief artificial intelligence scientist, Yann LeCun, has spent much of the past week talking to Elon Musk about the issue Tesla The way the CEO treats scientists and news organizations, and for spreading false conspiracies on social media.
“I love his cars (I own a 2015 S and a 2023 S), his rockets, his solar power systems and his satellite communications systems,” LeCun wrote about Musk on Sunday in a Post on X, the social media site that Musk owns. “But I strongly disagree with him on a number of points.”
The feud started days earlier, on May 27, after Musk went to X to encourage people to apply for positions at his AI startup, xAI. The company, which announced last week it had raised $6 billion, is locked in a battle for AI engineers with high-profile startups, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as top tech companies, including Googling, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta.
Meta is trying to differentiate itself in the world of large language models, or LLMs, which have driven the recent boom in generative AI product development. While LLMs from xAI, OpenAI, and Google are closed and patented for now, Meta is touting its Llama family of models as open source, meaning other researchers can copy, adapt, or otherwise use them for their own AI initiatives.
In response to Musk's promotional post, LeCun wrote: “Join xAI if you can tolerate a boss who makes promises that can't be kept, claims AI will 'kill everyone' and spews wild 'conspiracy theories' on his own social platform. '”
They continued with it on Monday, after Dr. Anthony Fauci testified for the first time since he left government in 2022. Appearing before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Fauci was widely criticized by Republicans who long claimed he lied about the origins of Covid-19.
Musk, who did that called earlier for prosecuting Fauci, posted on X: “Why do the Dems love Fauci so much.” He also unfollowed LeCun.
In response to being unfollowed, LeCun wrote, “It must have been my tweet in defense of Anthony Fauci.”
He then wrote, “Elon's call to prosecute and jail Fauci is pretty high on the scale of anti-science nonsense.”
While Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have been embroiled in a years-long public dispute and even teased each other for months last year about a potential cage match, few tech leaders have been willing to openly criticize Musk or bet against his companies.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has previously shorted Tesla shares. Investor Mark Cuban criticized Musk for his opposition to companies' Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. And Meta co-founder Dustin Moskovitz has accused Tesla of consumer fraud.
In posts on he chooses to share 'dangerous political issues'. opinions” and conspiracy theories.
Musk said in a post on X Monday that LeCun has been “out of touch with AI for a long time.” A Google Scholar link shared by LeCun indicates that he has published 80 technical articles since January 2022.
LeCun and Musk did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
The “blatantly false” predictions LeCun was referring to include Musk's claims that artificial general intelligence would emerge next year and that Tesla would bring 1 million robotaxis to market by 2020.
This last promise was discussed among investors in 2019. Musk said at the time that robotaxis would turn Tesla into a company worth $500 billion. Tesla's market cap exceeded $1 trillion in 2021, but the company still hasn't delivered a single robotaxi.
Musk has also shared lofty goals for his brain implant startup Neuralink. He claims Neuralink's devices could enable “superhuman cognition” and “solve” autism and schizophrenia. During a “show and tell” recruitment event in late 2022, Musk said he plans to get an implant himself.
The company has implanted its flagship system in one human patient to date and has not received FDA approval for its technology.
LeCun was also critical of Musk's way of taking credit for the work of others. He pointed out that Musk's only technical publication on Google Scholar is related to Neuralink. It was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research in 2019. Musk is listed as the lead author, while the generic term “Neuralink” is listed as the second author.
“I'm sure the scientists who hide behind this collective name are very happy with it,” says LeCun said on X. “I just hope they don't die bitter and forgotten.”
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