Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun (Julien De Rosa/Getty Images)

Tension emerges between Meta’s AI teams

Discontent between Meta’s AI research teams is growing, according to a report by The Information, at a critical time for Meta’s effort to get back into the AI race.

Jon Keegan

10/2/25 1:06PM

Long before Mark Zuckerberg pivoted Meta away from its quest for virtual reality to “bring personal superintelligence to everyone,” Meta’s research group FAIR was a powerhouse of important AI research, in addition to working on earlier iterations of the company’s Llama AI models. The group is headed by OG AI legend Yann LeCun, who is a pioneer in neural networks and computer vision.

The FAIR group operates like an academic research lab within Meta, publishing research papers and sharing work with the wider community. But since Meta’s stumble with its Llama 4 AI model, Zuckerberg went on an unprecedented hiring spree of AI all-stars, poaching top researchers from Meta’s competitors to build out a new “Superintelligence team.”

Now, The Information is reporting that there are new tensions between the AI groups, which could have huge ramifications for Meta’s AI research.

Per the report, several changes to how FAIR operates are causing friction. A new layer of review has been imposed on FAIR’s research before publication, and the company has been pressuring the group to direct its work more toward Meta products rather than the wider AI research community.

Adding to this, LeCun appeared to be sidelined when 28-year-old college dropout Alexandr Wang was hired from Scale AI and named chief AI officer. Later, when Meta recruited Shengjia Zhao, the cocreator of ChatGPT, away from OpenAI, Zhao was named “chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs.” Reportedly, the title was given to Zhao to appease him after he threatened to return to OpenAI, going so far as to sign HR paperwork with his former employer.

According to two Information sources, LeCun has discussed with colleagues the possibility of quitting the role. And the nine-figure salaries offered to the Superintelligence team recruits aren’t helping. The rocky start to Meta Superintelligence Labs raises questions about how quickly the new strategy can get Meta back into the AI race.

Bad vibes

Last week, Meta announced “Vibes,” a feed of AI-generated videos that appears in the Meta AI app. But the announcement was quickly dwarfed by the attention on OpenAI’s invite-only Sora app, featuring short videos generated from its new Sora 2 video generation model, which appears to set a new, high standard for the quality of such technology.

The buzz around Sora is real: it’s now No. 3 on the iOS App Store free apps leaderboard despite being invitation-only, while Meta AI sits at No. 97.

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Rani Molla2h

Report: Uber considers full Delivery Hero takeover to take on DoorDash outside the US

Uber appears to be considering upping its competition with DoorDash outside the US, exploring a potential full takeover of Frankfurt-listed Delivery Hero, Bloomberg reports. Earlier this week the US-based ride-hailing service disclosed a 19.5% stake in the food delivery company, but now that could go higher.

The $11.8 billion German company could be particularly vulnerable to a takeover right now, with its CEO having recently stepped down following pressure from activist investors to sell off assets. A full acquisition would give Uber a massive foothold in over 60 countries to combat DoorDash’s European-focused Wolt unit.

Uber has been involved in a lot of deal-making of late, mostly in the autonomous vehicle space, where it now has more than 30 partnerships globally.

Uber extended its losses on the news and is currently down around 1.7%.

Uber Said to Study Full Takeover of European Rival Delivery Hero

Uber has been involved in a lot of deal-making of late, mostly in the autonomous vehicle space, where it now has more than 30 partnerships globally.

Uber extended its losses on the news and is currently down around 1.7%.

Rani Molla5h

Meta released a Reddit dupe. Reddit investors don’t like it.

Fresh on the heels of releasing a Snapchat dupe, which sent Snap down earlier this month, Meta seems to be meddling with Reddit, quietly releasing a Reddit-like Facebook app called Forum yesterday. After news of the “dedicated space built for deeper discussions, real answers and the communities you care about,” Reddit’s stock is down 4.5% today.

Last month, Reddit’s earnings report handily beat analysts’ expectations, but it continues to struggle with the perception that bigger tech companies — including Meta — investing heavily in AI will eat its lunch. The stock is down nearly 40% year-to-date.

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Report: OpenAI’s Q1 revenue was $5.7 billion, beating Anthropic

The neck-and-neck race between OpenAI and Anthropic as the AI companies barrel toward their expected IPOs this year is shaking out some internal numbers for would-be investors to ponder.

The Information is reporting that OpenAI’s first-quarter revenue was ~$5.7 billion, about $1 billion ahead of Anthropic’s revenue for the same period.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Anthropic is on course to more than double its first-quarter revenue of $4.8 billion to $10.9 billion in the second quarter. It is not known what OpenAI is projecting for Q2.

Recently, The New York Times reported that Anthropic’s current fundraising round seeking to raise between $30 billion and $50 billion comes with a valuation of up to $950 billion, putting it ahead of OpenAI’s latest reported valuation of $850 billion.

OpenAI Held $1 Billion Revenue Lead Over Anthropic in First Quarter

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Alphabet’s Waymos are still getting caught in floods after recall

Waymo, the self-driving subsidiary of Alphabet, has paused operations in Atlanta after a new report of a vehicle driving into a flooded roadway and getting stuck, TechCrunch reports. The news comes just weeks after the company recalled its fleet of nearly 4,000 driverless cars to deal with a previous flood incident in San Antonio, where the service is also paused.

After that incident, Waymo instituted an “interim remedy” to make the vehicles “exclude additional operating conditions that present an elevated risk of encountering a flooded, higherspeed roadway,” but added that it was still “developing the final remedy for this recall.”

As we’ve noted, Waymo has mostly kept its rollout — now public in 11 cities — to more temperate climates, as severe weather poses more challenges to autonomous vehicles.

Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods | TechCrunch