Meta’s vice president of artificial intelligence research, Joelle Pineau, has announced she will be leaving the company. In a LinkedIn post on Tuesday, Pineau stated that her last day at the social media giant will be May 30.
Her departure comes at a pivotal moment for Meta, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg prioritizes AI development, investing billions to compete with OpenAI and Google. Zuckerberg has emphasized his vision of creating an AI assistant with over 1 billion users and advancing artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a technology designed to think and act on par with humans.
"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 wrote. "I will be cheering from the sidelines, knowing that you have all the ingredients needed to build the best AI systems in the world, and to responsibly bring them into the lives of billions of people."
Pineau, who has led Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) unit since 2023, played a crucial role in overseeing cutting-edge AI studies, some of which have been integrated into Meta’s core applications. She initially joined Meta in 2017 to head its Montreal AI research lab. Additionally, she serves as a professor at McGill University, where she co-directs the reasoning and learning lab.
During her tenure, Pineau contributed to the development of Meta’s open-source Llama AI models and technologies like PyTorch, widely used by AI developers. Her departure comes just weeks ahead of Meta’s LlamaCon AI conference on April 29, where the company is expected to unveil the latest version of Llama and new AI innovations, including a standalone app for its Meta AI chatbot.
Chris Cox, Meta’s Chief Product Officer and Pineau’s direct supervisor, previously stated that Llama 4 will play a critical role in powering AI agents, a growing trend in generative AI. A Meta spokesperson thanked Pineau for her leadership, highlighting her contributions to open-source AI and scientific advancements that have influenced the company’s products.
While Pineau did not disclose her next professional move, she mentioned taking time to reflect before embarking on her next endeavor.