Meta taps former Google DeepMind director to lead its AI research lab
Meta has chosen Robert Fergus to lead its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab, according to Bloomberg.
Fergus had been working at Google DeepMind as a research director for nearly five years, per his LinkedIn. Prior to Google, he worked as a researcher scientist at Meta.
Meta's FAIR, which has been around since 2013, has faced challenges in recent years, according to a report from Fortune. FAIR led research on the company's early AI models, including Llama 1 and Llama 2. However, researchers have reportedly departed the unit en masse for other startups, companies, and even Meta's newer GenAI group, which led the development of Llama 4.
Meta's previous VP of AI Research, Joelle Pineau, announced in April she'd be leaving the company for a new opportunity.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
a few seconds ago
- CNN
Trump reveals plan to win in AI: Remove ‘red tape' for Silicon Valley
The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled its AI action plan, a package of initiatives and policy recommendations meant to cement the United States as a global leader in a technology that's expected to be as influential as the internet itself. The White House largely seeks to achieve that lofty, Silicon Valley-friendly goal through scaling back AI regulation — with a notable, MAGA-friendly exception that will work to eliminate political 'bias' in AI. The plan includes three pillars: accelerating innovation, building out AI infrastructure in the United States and making American hardware and software the 'standard' platform for AI innovations built around the world. The plan also recommends that large language models procured by the federal government are 'objective and free from top-down ideological bias,' according to a 28-page plan published by the White House Wednesday. It's the Trump administration's latest push to expand AI infrastructure and investments in the United States and serves as another indication that staying ahead of China in AI is a top priority for the administration. 'It's a global competition now to lead in artificial intelligence,' said White House AI Czar David Sacks on a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning. 'And we want the United States to win that race. AI is a revolutionary technology that's going to have profound ramifications for both the economy and for national security, so it is just very important that America continue to be the dominant power in AI.' The announcement came before Trump is expected to outline his AI plans during an event in Washington Wednesday evening called Winning the AI Race. The event will be hosted by the 'All-in Podcast,' a show about business and politics co-hosted by Sacks among other industry figures, and the Hill & Valley Forum, a group that hosts a tech and policy conference founded by Jacob Helberg, previously a commissioner for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, and investors Delian Asparouhov and Christian Garrett. The plan involves removing what the Trump administration described as 'bureaucratic red tape' to AI development and is based on recommendations from the private sector, as well as academia and civil society groups, White House officials said. It also calls for streamlining permitting for data centers, semiconductor manufacturing facilities and energy infrastructure. And the government will partner with US tech companies to make 'full stack AI export packages' — AI models, hardware and software — available to American ally countries. That's in an effort to make US technology the global standard, something Silicon Valley leaders have called for to ensure the United States remains an AI leader. Michael Krastios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, said on the conference call that all policies outlined in the action plan can be executed in the next six months to a year. Lawmakers and tech leaders have been divided on how AI should be regulated, highlighting the struggle to balance safety with speed. Soon after taking office, Trump repealed a sweeping executive order passed by former President Joe Biden that sought to implement some safeguards around AI development and use. More recently, the US Senate voted on July 1 to remove a provision from Republicans' sweeping domestic policy legislation, for example, that would have prevented states from enforcing AI-related laws for 10 years. Tech leaders have argued that state-level rules or a patchwork of regulation could slow innovation and deployment. But those who opposed the provision worried that it would hamper efforts to keep AI safe and hold tech companies accountable. However, the AI action plan recommends that the federal government 'consider a state's AI regulatory climate' when considering how to distribute federal funding for AI-related programs. Some have criticized the Trump Administration's agenda for prioritizing the interests of the tech industry over AI safety, in the face of concerns about AI taking jobs or harming children, among others. A coalition of privacy advocates, labor unions and other organizations are calling for a People's Action Plan to counter the Trump administration's proposals. Its signatories include the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Writers Guild of America East and research institute the AI Now Institute. A senior White House official said that more than 10,000 responses from 'diverse' individuals and sectors were submitted in the White House's request for information to inform the plan. The plan recommends updating federal procurement guidelines so the government contracts only with large language model developers that 'ensure their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias.' But experts have said enforcing such a rule could be challenging since it's unclear what the definition of 'bias' is. That could also slow down innovation, because tech companies looking to secure government contracts will likely have new guidelines to adhere to. 'This type of thing, which creates all kinds of concerns and liability and complexity for the people developing these models — all of a sudden they have to slow down,' said Oren Etzioni, former CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a Seattle-based nonprofit research institute. Wednesday's plan follows a series of AI and tech-related investments and announcements from private businesses made throughout Trump's second term thus far. On July 15, the president announced an investment of more than $90 billion from companies across tech, energy and finance to turn Pennsylvania into a hub for artificial intelligence. He kicked off his second term with a $500 billion AI infrastructure project called Stargate, which involves a collaboration between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison. He also said he would roll back Biden-era AI export restrictions on AI chips, and Nvidia was recently allowed to resume selling its H20 AI chips to China. More broadly, Trump has been pressuring tech giants to expand their US operations in a bid to bring back US manufacturing, create jobs and reduce reliance on China for tech production, although experts have been skeptical that such efforts will be successful. He's touted investments from companies like Apple and TSMC as political victories, although it's possible that at least some of those plans were in place regardless of Trump's push. Collaboration between the tech industry and the White House isn't new; it's happened under the Biden administration and long before then. But tech CEOs have been noticeably present through Trump's first six months in office. Tech giants and the White House have come together over a shared goal: Staying ahead of China's AI ambitions. Chinese startup DeepSeek rattled the markets and Silicon Valley earlier this year with its powerful yet supposedly cheap-to-train R1 model, sparking concern that China may be further ahead than expected. The challenge of maintaining an edge in AI while prioritizing safety has come up on Capitol Hill before; tech leaders from Microsoft, OpenAI, CoreWeave and AMD addressed the issue in a Senate committee hearing in May. 'The number one factor that will define whether the United States or China wins this race is whose technology is most broadly adopted in the rest of the world,' Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith said during that hearing.
CNN
28 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump reveals plan to win in AI: Remove ‘red tape' for Silicon Valley
The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled its AI action plan, a package of initiatives and policy recommendations meant to cement the United States as a global leader in a technology that's expected to be as influential as the internet itself. The White House largely seeks to achieve that lofty, Silicon Valley-friendly goal through scaling back AI regulation — with a notable, MAGA-friendly exception that will work to eliminate political 'bias' in AI. The plan includes three pillars: accelerating innovation, building out AI infrastructure in the United States and making American hardware and software the 'standard' platform for AI innovations built around the world. The plan also recommends that large language models procured by the federal government are 'objective and free from top-down ideological bias,' according to a 28-page plan published by the White House Wednesday. It's the Trump administration's latest push to expand AI infrastructure and investments in the United States and serves as another indication that staying ahead of China in AI is a top priority for the administration. 'It's a global competition now to lead in artificial intelligence,' said White House AI Czar David Sacks on a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning. 'And we want the United States to win that race. AI is a revolutionary technology that's going to have profound ramifications for both the economy and for national security, so it is just very important that America continue to be the dominant power in AI.' The announcement came before Trump is expected to outline his AI plans during an event in Washington Wednesday evening called Winning the AI Race. The event will be hosted by the 'All-in Podcast,' a show about business and politics co-hosted by Sacks among other industry figures, and the Hill & Valley Forum, a group that hosts a tech and policy conference founded by Jacob Helberg, previously a commissioner for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, and investors Delian Asparouhov and Christian Garrett. The plan involves removing what the Trump administration described as 'bureaucratic red tape' to AI development and is based on recommendations from the private sector, as well as academia and civil society groups, White House officials said. It also calls for streamlining permitting for data centers, semiconductor manufacturing facilities and energy infrastructure. And the government will partner with US tech companies to make 'full stack AI export packages' — AI models, hardware and software — available to American ally countries. That's in an effort to make US technology the global standard, something Silicon Valley leaders have called for to ensure the United States remains an AI leader. Michael Krastios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, said on the conference call that all policies outlined in the action plan can be executed in the next six months to a year. Lawmakers and tech leaders have been divided on how AI should be regulated, highlighting the struggle to balance safety with speed. Soon after taking office, Trump repealed a sweeping executive order passed by former President Joe Biden that sought to implement some safeguards around AI development and use. More recently, the US Senate voted on July 1 to remove a provision from Republicans' sweeping domestic policy legislation, for example, that would have prevented states from enforcing AI-related laws for 10 years. Tech leaders have argued that state-level rules or a patchwork of regulation could slow innovation and deployment. But those who opposed the provision worried that it would hamper efforts to keep AI safe and hold tech companies accountable. However, the AI action plan recommends that the federal government 'consider a state's AI regulatory climate' when considering how to distribute federal funding for AI-related programs. Some have criticized the Trump Administration's agenda for prioritizing the interests of the tech industry over AI safety, in the face of concerns about AI taking jobs or harming children, among others. A coalition of privacy advocates, labor unions and other organizations are calling for a People's Action Plan to counter the Trump administration's proposals. Its signatories include the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Writers Guild of America East and research institute the AI Now Institute. A senior White House official said that more than 10,000 responses from 'diverse' individuals and sectors were submitted in the White House's request for information to inform the plan. The plan recommends updating federal procurement guidelines so the government contracts only with large language model developers that 'ensure their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias.' But experts have said enforcing such a rule could be challenging since it's unclear what the definition of 'bias' is. That could also slow down innovation, because tech companies looking to secure government contracts will likely have new guidelines to adhere to. 'This type of thing, which creates all kinds of concerns and liability and complexity for the people developing these models — all of a sudden they have to slow down,' said Oren Etzioni, former CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a Seattle-based nonprofit research institute. Wednesday's plan follows a series of AI and tech-related investments and announcements from private businesses made throughout Trump's second term thus far. On July 15, the president announced an investment of more than $90 billion from companies across tech, energy and finance to turn Pennsylvania into a hub for artificial intelligence. He kicked off his second term with a $500 billion AI infrastructure project called Stargate, which involves a collaboration between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison. He also said he would roll back Biden-era AI export restrictions on AI chips, and Nvidia was recently allowed to resume selling its H20 AI chips to China. More broadly, Trump has been pressuring tech giants to expand their US operations in a bid to bring back US manufacturing, create jobs and reduce reliance on China for tech production, although experts have been skeptical that such efforts will be successful. He's touted investments from companies like Apple and TSMC as political victories, although it's possible that at least some of those plans were in place regardless of Trump's push. Collaboration between the tech industry and the White House isn't new; it's happened under the Biden administration and long before then. But tech CEOs have been noticeably present through Trump's first six months in office. Tech giants and the White House have come together over a shared goal: Staying ahead of China's AI ambitions. Chinese startup DeepSeek rattled the markets and Silicon Valley earlier this year with its powerful yet supposedly cheap-to-train R1 model, sparking concern that China may be further ahead than expected. The challenge of maintaining an edge in AI while prioritizing safety has come up on Capitol Hill before; tech leaders from Microsoft, OpenAI, CoreWeave and AMD addressed the issue in a Senate committee hearing in May. 'The number one factor that will define whether the United States or China wins this race is whose technology is most broadly adopted in the rest of the world,' Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith said during that hearing.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jim Cramer Says 'We Should be in ConocoPhillips'
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is one of the stocks that Jim Cramer shed light on. When a caller asked about the company during the lightning round, Cramer commented: 'All right. Buy COP. Let me tell you, I just told Jeff Marks, my partner for the club, that we're in the wrong one now. Coterra is not delivering. We should be in ConocoPhillips. I just said it today. I'm not going to say it behind… I tell it to you, I say it to him. That's how I play it.' Pixabay/Public Domain ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) engages in the exploration, production, and transportation of crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, and natural gas liquids. Earlier in June, when a caller expressed their wish to sell COP shares for LLY shares, Cramer replied: 'I like your idea. I like your idea. I like your idea. I think Lily's at a great level, and Conoco is not nearly as all the oils go to like 4 or 5% yield, this is only three and a half. I want you to sell the Conoco and buy the Lilly. I like that idea.' While we acknowledge the potential of COP as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
