Joelle Pineau’s Departure from Meta

Joelle Pineau, the Vice President of AI Research at Meta, has announced her exit from the company after serving for eight years. In a LinkedIn update shared on Tuesday, Pineau mentioned that her final day at Meta will be 30 May 2025. Reflecting on her journey with the company, Pineau expressed that it has been the most significant professional experience of her career.

Career Highlights at Meta

Pineau became part of Meta in 2017 as the leader of the Montreal AI research lab and was later elevated to head of Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) group in 2023. Throughout her time there, she led numerous vital projects, such as the Llama family of open-source large language models (LLMs) and the popular machine learning framework, PyTorch. Furthermore, she played a significant role in pioneering research in advanced AI applications, including voice translation and image recognition. Pineau is also a computer science professor at McGill University, where she co-directs the reasoning and learning lab.

Significance of Pineau’s Departure for Meta

Pineau’s exit comes at a crucial time for Meta, which is ramping up its focus on artificial intelligence. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI a central priority, aiming to develop an AI assistant with over one billion users and ultimately reach the goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI). To further these objectives, Meta intends to invest between $60 billion and $65 billion in AI advancements this year, which includes bolstering its data centre infrastructure and doubling its graphics processing units (GPUs) to 1.3 million.

Meta’s Role in AI Development

Meta’s open-source LLMs, including Llama, serve as the primary alternative to proprietary models such as OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s Gemini. The company plans to reveal additional advancements at LlamaCon, its debut developer conference focused on generative AI, scheduled for 29 April 2025. Recently, Meta’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox, stated that Llama 4 would drive AI agents, which have become a key component of the generative AI competition.

Pineau’s Future Plans

While Pineau has not revealed her next career steps, she mentioned her intention to take some time for reflection before starting a new chapter. She expressed support for her colleagues, stating that they possess all the necessary ingredients to create the best AI systems globally and to responsibly integrate these technologies into the lives of billions.

Meta has yet to name a successor for Pineau; however, the company has confirmed that the search for a new leader of FAIR is currently in progress.