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Yann LeCun Says Meta "Fudged" Llama 4 Benchmarks as He Details Why He Left

He argues Meta's LLM-first strategy reshaped the company's research culture.

Overview

  • LeCun told the Financial Times that Meta used different Llama 4 variants on different tests to boost scores, a practice he called "fudged a little bit," while Meta's Ahmad Al-Dahle previously attributed replication gaps to cloud differences.
  • He said the benchmark controversy drained leadership confidence, prompting Mark Zuckerberg to overhaul AI efforts and create Meta Superintelligence Labs after Llama 4's reception.
  • Meta bought a 49% stake in Scale AI for roughly $14–15 billion and installed founder Alexandr Wang to run the new lab, with LeCun formally reporting to him.
  • LeCun described Wang as young and inexperienced in leading research teams, said Wang was not directing his work, and warned that many researchers have left or plan to leave.
  • He maintains LLMs are a dead end for superintelligence and has launched Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs as executive chairman to pursue world-model research, with reports citing a $3 billion valuation target and Alex LeBrun as CEO.