Yann LeCunYann LeCun

Born 1960 near Paris, France. Earned an engineering degree from ESIEE Paris (1983), then a PhD in Computer Science from Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (1987). Did a postdoc with Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto (1987-88), a pivotal experience. Joined AT&T Bell Labs (1988-1996) where he developed convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and LeNet for handwritten digit recognition -- one of the first practical deep learning systems deployed in banking. Became a professor at NYU (2003), founded the Center for Data Science (2012). Became the first director of Facebook AI Research / FAIR (2013) and rose to Chief AI Scientist at Meta. A vocal advocate for self-supervised learning and frequent critic of large language models' reasoning capabilities. Shared the Turing Award (2018). Left Meta in November 2025 after FAIR budget cuts and leadership changes. Founded Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs (AMI Labs) in Paris, targeting a $3.5B valuation before even launching -- focused on building 'world models': AI systems that understand physics, maintain persistent memory, and plan complex actions rather than simply predicting the next word. He co-founded AMI with Alexandre LeBrun; the startup raised a $1.03B seed at a $3.5B pre-money valuation (announced 10 March 2026) before launching any product, HQ in Paris with offices in New York, Montreal and Singapore.