Meta has appointed Robert Fergus as the new head of its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab, following the departure of former VP of AI Research Joelle Pineau in April. Fergus, who spent five years as a research director at Google DeepMind, returns to Meta, where he previously served as a research scientist before his tenure at Google.
Founded in 2013, FAIR has been instrumental in developing Meta’s foundational AI models, including Llama 1 and Llama 2, but has faced talent retention challenges amid competition from startups and Meta’s own GenAI division. With Fergus now at the helm, Meta aims to revitalize FAIR’s research leadership and advance its long-term AI initiatives.
