Facebook Appoints New Head of AI Research
Facebook recently appointed Jérôme Pesenti, a former IBM executive, as the new head of its Facebook AI Research (FAIR) division. Yann LeCun, who previously held the role, will transition to Chief AI Scientist, focusing more on the scientific agenda of FAIR. This change aims to consolidate Facebook’s AI research efforts. Before joining Facebook, Pesenti led the development of IBM’s Watson platform and served as CEO of BenevolentTech.
FAIR currently employs 130 people, and one of Pesenti’s tasks will be to guide the group’s continued expansion. Facebook recently opened new AI research labs in Montreal and Paris, and plans to double the size of its Paris AI team to 100 people by 2022.
