Who’s behind AMI Labs, Yann LeCun’s ‘world model’ startup

Yann LeCun’s new venture, AMI Labs, has attracted a lot of attention since the AI ​​scientist left Meta to found it. This week, the startup finally confirmed what they’re building – and several key details are hidden in plain sight.

Up newly launched websitethe startup announced its plans to develop “world models” to “build intelligent systems that understand the real world.” The focus on world models was already suggested by the name of AMI, which stands for Advanced Machine Intelligence, but it has now officially joined the ranks of the hottest AI research startups.

Building fundamental models that bridge AI and the real world has become one of the most exciting pursuits in this field, attracting top scientists and deep-pocketed investors alike: product or no product.

World Labs, a direct rival founded by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, became a unicorn shortly after emerging from the stealth world. After launching its first product, Marble, which generates physically sound 3D worlds, World Labs is now available reportedly in conversation to raise new financing valued at $5 billion.

There’s little doubt that venture capital firms would be just as eager to invest in LeCun, which would add credibility to rumors that AMI Labs might raise money at a valuation of $3.5 billion. According to Bloomberg, venture capital firms in discussions with the startup, in which LeCun is participating, include Cathay Innovation, Greycroft and Hiro Capital. is an advisor. Other potential investors reportedly include 20VC, Bpifrance, Daphni and HV Capital.

Regardless of who writes the checks, investors may want to note one important detail: As LeCun has made clear, he is AMI’s executive chairman, not its CEO. Instead, that role has gone to Alex LeBrun, previously co-founder and CEO of Nabla, a health AI startup with offices in Paris and New York.

LeBrun’s transition from Nabla to AMI is part of a partnership announced last December by Nabla, which develops AI assistants for clinical care and for which LeCun has been a consultant. In exchange for “privileged access” to AMI’s world models, Nabla’s board supported LeBrun’s shift from CEO to chief AI scientist and chairman, paving the way for his new role.

As CEO of AMI Labs, LeBrun will be surrounded by familiar faces. After Facebook acquired his previous startup Wit.ai, the serial entrepreneur and AI engineer worked under LeCun at Meta’s AI research lab, FAIR. According to reportsthe duo is also joined by Laurent Solly, who got off as Meta’s vice president for Europe last December.

The talent overlap between AMI and Meta probably won’t stop there. LeCun told the MIT Technology Review that his former employer could be AMI’s first customer. But he has also been publicly critical of some of Meta’s strategic choices made under Mark Zuckerberg. More broadly, the Review interprets AMI Labs as a contrarian bet against large language models (LLMs).

The limitations of LLMs pointed out by LeCun include hallucinations, which are a serious problem in contexts like medicine, as LeBrun also knows firsthand. CEO of AMI Labs told Forbes that a key reason he took on this role was the prospect of applying his world models to healthcare. But the startup will also focus on other applications where a lot is at stake.

“AMI Labs will advance AI research and develop applications where reliability, manageability and safety really matter, especially for industrial process control, automation, wearables, robotics, healthcare and beyond,” it wrote in its mission statement. “We share one belief: true intelligence doesn’t start in language. It starts in the world.”

Unlike generative approaches, which LeCun and his team see as poorly suited to unpredictable data like sensor input, the startup promises that its AI systems will not only understand the real world, but will also have persistent memory, the ability to reason and plan, and be controllable and secure.

The startup plans to license its technology to industry partners for real-world applications, but says it also wants to help build the future of AI “with the global academic research community through open publishing and open source.” LeCun said he plans to maintain his professor position at NYU, where he teaches one class a year and supervises graduate and postdoctoral students.

This means the French-born researcher will remain based in New York, but he told the MIT Technology Review that AMI Labs “is going to become a global company [that’s] headquarters in Paris.” The news was welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his pride that LeCun, who is also a Turing Prize winner, chose Paris. “We will do everything we can to ensure his success from France,” he said.

The startup will also have offices in Montreal, New York and Singapore, but the decision to choose Paris as its headquarters will help consolidate Paris’ reputation as an AI hub, where it will join the ranks of H, Mistral AI and several international labs, including FAIR. It is perhaps appropriate that AMI is pronounced “ami” in French, which means “friend,” LeCun has noted.