Meta is betting big on artificial intelligence, with short-term objectives – notably the arrival of Llama 3 in a few days’ time and the adaptation of its products – but also a long-term, even very long-term objective of developing an autonomous machine intelligence. For regulatory reasons, some of these innovations are not, or will not be, available in Europe. Meta is currently organizing a major tour to present its AI-related projects, and its stars are on the bill, this Tuesday in London, yesterday in Paris. Yann Le Cun, a true prophet of AI, was obviously on hand, and so was his Quebec colleague Joëlle Pineau, VP in charge of AI at Meta. Yann Le Cun warns, smiling: « I don’t run anything anymore. I just give people ideas ». To which Joëlle Pineau replies, later in the conference: « Yann sets us ambitious long-term goals ». And his ambition is enormous, as he claims it is nothing less than to create « an advanced machine intelligence. It is really an autonomous intelligent machine, but the word autonomous is scary ». With this brilliant pairing, we can rest assured that Meta’s investment in AI will be sustainable, and not just a passing fad. Laurent Solly, Meta’s VP for Southern Europe, recalled the long history of Meta and Meta…
