Montrealer to leave key AI role at Meta
Posted April 2, 2025 10:41 am.
Last Updated April 2, 2025 10:45 am.
Canadian researcher and McGill University professor Joëlle Pineau announced that she will be leaving her position as vice-president of artificial intelligence (AI) research at Meta, vacating a key position at a time of fierce competition in the development of this technology.
The Montrealer announced Tuesday that she will leave at the end of May after eight years with the company.
“As we say in Montreal, it’s time to hang up my skates,” she wrote on social media.
“Today, as the world undergoes significant change, the AI race accelerates, and Meta prepares for its next chapter, it is time to create space for others to continue this work,” she said in her message.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to an email request for comment on the decision. Pineau has not indicated who will replace her.
A professor of computer science at McGill University, Pineau is the spokesperson for Meta’s open-source approach to building AI systems, such as its flagship language model called Llama, in which the basic components are made public for others to use or modify.
Her announcement comes ahead of the launch of the new LlamaCon AI conference on April 29.
In 2023, she took over as head of Meta’s AI research division, formerly Facebook AI Research, founded a decade earlier by a group that included pioneering AI researcher Yann LeCun. LeCun stepped down as head of the group in 2018 but remains Meta’s chief AI scientist.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
