Meta AI chief says he dislikes Elon Musk's 'vengeful politics, hype’, latter responds

Meta AI chief said, "I very much dislike his vengeful politics, his conspiracy theories, and his hype."

When Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk invited followers to join his AI startup xAI, little did he know that he would get into a public spat with Meta AI chief Yann LeCun about Artificial Intelligence research and company ethics. Elon Musk tweeted, "Join xAI if you believe in our mission of understanding the universe, which requires a maximally rigorous pursuit of the truth, without regard to popularity or political correctness."

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of SpaceX and Tesla, speaks to the media during the launch of SpaceX's Starlink internet service in Indonesia. (Reuters)

To this, Yann LeCun responded with a jibe at Elon Musk's management style saying, "Join xAI if you can stand a boss who:- Claims that what you are working on will be solved next year (no pressure). -Claims that what you are working on will kill everyone and must be stopped or paused (yay, vacation for 6 months!).-Claims to want a 'maximally rigorous pursuit of the truth' but spews crazy-ass conspiracy theories on his own social platform."

He then added, "I like his cars, his rockets, his solar panels, and his satellite network. I very much dislike his vengeful politics, his conspiracy theories, and his hype."

To this Elon Musk retorted, "What 'science' have you done in the past 5 years?" and then Yann LeCun countered, "Over 80 technical papers published since January 2022. What about you?"

“That’s nothing, you’re going soft. Try harder!,” Elon Musk then said. Yann LeCun replied, "Now you're acting as if you were my boss."

“Yann is ‘just following orders’,” Elon Musk said. Yann LeCun ended the fight by saying, “You don't seem to understand how research works.”