Yann LeCun’s AI ‘World Model’ Startup Targets $5 Billion Valuation
▼ Summary
– AI scientist Yann LeCun has launched a startup called Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI), where he serves as Executive Chairman but not CEO.
– AMI has hired Alex LeBrun, the former CEO of medical AI startup Nabla, as its new CEO.
– The startup is reportedly seeking to raise €500 million at a €3 billion valuation and is developing “world model” AI as an alternative to large language models.
– Nabla, LeBrun’s former company, will be run by its COO temporarily and has signed a partnership to use AMI’s future models.
– LeBrun’s background includes early work on multimodal AI at Nuance Communications and leading Facebook’s AI division before founding Nabla.
A new venture from one of artificial intelligence’s most prominent figures is officially taking shape, with Yann LeCun confirming the launch of his startup, Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI). While LeCun will serve as Executive Chairman, the company has appointed Alex LeBrun, the co-founder and outgoing CEO of medical AI firm Nabla, as its chief executive. Reports indicate the fledgling company is already pursuing a substantial funding round, seeking €500 million at a valuation of approximately €3 billion. This ambitious financial target reflects the intense investor appetite for projects led by foundational AI researchers, a trend seen with other high-profile launches in the sector.
The company’s focus, as widely anticipated, will be on developing world model AI. This approach represents a significant departure from current large language models (LLMs). Instead of primarily processing and generating text, a world model AI aims to build an internal understanding of environments and systems. This foundational comprehension allows it to simulate cause-and-effect relationships and run predictive scenarios, a capability its proponents argue could solve the persistent issue of hallucinations inherent to LLMs. The non-deterministic, or creatively statistical, nature of LLMs makes factual reliability a constant challenge, which world models are designed to overcome.
AMI is entering a competitive field where other major players are also advancing similar technology. Google DeepMind and Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs are among the notable entities working on world models. When World Labs launched, its $230 million raise at a $1 billion valuation was considered remarkable, though the market for AI funding has escalated dramatically since then. In this context, AMI’s reported fundraising goals, while bold, align with the premium placed on pedigreed AI talent. LeCun’s credentials are unparalleled; a professor at NYU, former VP and Chief AI Scientist at Meta, and a recipient of the prestigious A.M. Turing Award for his contributions to deep learning.
The appointment of Alex LeBrun brings considerable experience to AMI’s leadership. His career in AI spans over a decade, beginning with work at Nuance Communications, the original engine behind Apple’s Siri. He later founded and sold natural language startups, led Facebook’s AI division, and most recently built Nabla into a standout within the Parisian AI scene. His transition coincides with an announcement that Nabla’s live annual recurring revenue has more than tripled this year. LeBrun will remain with Nabla as Chairman and Chief AI Scientist, while co-founder and COO Delphine Groll assumes interim leadership. Notably, Nabla has also entered a partnership to utilize AMI’s models once they are developed.
The startup’s formation and aggressive financial strategy underscore a pivotal moment in AI development, where alternative architectures to LLMs are attracting serious investment and intellectual firepower. With a proven leader at the helm and a Turing Award-winning visionary guiding its technical direction, AMI Labs is positioned as a formidable contender in the race to build more reliable and reasoning artificial intelligence systems.
(Source: TechCrunch)
