Meta’s AI head Joelle Pineau announces her exit from the company after 8 years: ‘Today, as the world undergoes...’
Joelle Pineau, a prominent figure in Meta's AI research, will depart the company in May after an eight-year tenure. Her decision coincides with Meta's upcoming LlamaCon AI conference. Pineau played a significant role in Meta's open-source AI initiatives and remains optimistic about the future. Following her departure, she intends to take some time off.
Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) Joelle Pineau has announced that she will step down at the end of May, marking the end of her eight-year tenure at the company. Her departure comes just ahead of Meta’s inaugural LlamaCon AI conference on April 29, an event focused on showcasing the company’s AI advancements.
Leadership Transition
Pineau, who has been instrumental in shaping Meta’s artificial intelligence research and its open-source approach, shared her decision in a social media post on Tuesday, April 1. “Today, as the world undergoes significant change, as the race for AI accelerates, and as Meta prepares for its next chapter, it is time to create space for others to pursue the work," she wrote in a Facebook post.
Pineau has not named a successor, and Meta has yet to comment on the leadership transition. Based in Montreal, where she also serves as a computer science professor at McGill University, Pineau has been a key advocate for Meta’s open-source AI initiatives.
Contributions at Meta
Under her leadership, the company developed Llama, a flagship large language model that allows researchers and developers to access and modify its core components. Pineau took charge of Meta’s AI research division in 2023, succeeding a group that originally included pioneering AI scientist Yann LeCun. LeCun, who co-founded the division—formerly known as Facebook AI Research—stepped down as its director in 2018 but remains Meta’s chief AI scientist.
In a post, Pineau expressed her gratitude for the opportunities and challenges during her time at Meta, highlighting the impact of the team's work on advancing AI research and development.
Reflections on Departure
After nearly 8 years at Meta, Pineau wrote, “This has been the professional experience of a lifetime! I arrived at Meta in May 2017, thrilled to be joining forces with some of the world’s best AI researchers, with the simple goal of solving AI and open-sourcing our research to accelerate innovation through the broader eco-system."
Pineau expressed her appreciation for her colleagues, managers, and the collaborative environment that enabled the creation and implementation of various AI projects at Meta. She mentioned some of the notable projects like PyTorch, FAISS, Roberta, Dino, Llama, SAM, and Codegen that have become household names in the AI community.
She concluded her post by stating, “Today, as the world undergoes significant change, as the race for AI accelerates, and as Meta prepares for its next chapter, it is time to create space for others to pursue the work." Pineau's last day at Meta will be on May 30, after which she plans to take some time for reflection before embarking on a new adventure.