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An AI pioneer warns that tech ‘herd’ is marching into a dead end

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Dr Yann LeCun's early research paved the way for many of today's AI systems.

Computer scientist Yann LeCun’s early research paved the way for many of today’s AI systems.

PHOTO: VICTOR LLORENTE/NYTIMES

Cade Metz

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SAN FRANCISCO – Throughout his 40-year career as a computer scientist, Dr Yann LeCun has earned a reputation as one of the world’s leading experts on

artificial intelligence (AI)

and a man with a penchant for throwing verbal grenades.

He was one of three pioneering researchers who received the Turing Award, often called “the Nobel Prize of computing”, for their work on the technology that is now the foundation for modern AI. For more than a decade, he also served as chief AI scientist at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

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