TLDR
Don’t have time? No worries, it’s all summarized in a few bullet points right here.
- Yann LeCun would focus on self-supervised learning (SSL) to create World Models that are driven by loss functions based on energy-based models (EBMs) as core research and technological innovations for his startup.
- His startup would specialize in creating advanced world models using EBMs, which would enable AI systems to ultimately predict, interpret, interact, and adapt to their environments.
- The main products of his startup would include autonomous AI cognitive frameworks, AI services for developers, and educational and research tools.
- Strategic considerations for his startup would involve industry collaboration, open-source contributions, and regulatory engagement.
- These points are based in his multiple papers, presentations and mainly in these recommendations: Yann LeCun recommends abandoning generative models, probabilistic models, contrastive methods, and reinforcement learning in favor of joint-embedding architectures, energy-based models, regularized methods, and model-predictive control.
Introduction
If Yann LeCun, a luminary in the artificial intelligence field, were to launch a startup today, it would undoubtedly leverage cutting-edge technologies influenced by his profound research interests and recent AI trends. This exploration predicts the focal areas of such a startup and the revolutionary products it could introduce.
What would he work on?
Core Research and Technological Innovations:
- Self-Supervised Learning (SSL): Yann LeCun is a prominent advocate for self-supervised learning (SSL), particularly focusing on discriminative approaches (discussed below in World Models). Unlike generative models, discriminative approaches do not aim to reconstruct or generate data. Instead, they excel in understanding and predicting the relationships between various parts of the input data. Leveraging SSL, which utilizes unlabeled data, LeCun's startup could revolutionize the development of AI models. By significantly reducing dependency on large, labeled datasets, this approach could democratize AI technology—making it more affordable and accessible, enabling wider adoption and accelerated innovation across various sectors.
- Energy-Based AI Models: Consistent with his recent presentations and publications (presentation, video, paper), another, almost certain focus, could be on creating Energy-Based Models. These models assess compatibility between variables through energy functions, giving low energy to compatible (desired) variable pairs and high energy to incompatible ones. EBMs could be pivotal in domains requiring complex decision-making, like robotics and natural language processing, by enabling dynamic interactions and adaptive responses within varied environments. Note: EBMs seem to be a great way to implement loss functions in favor of typical probabilistic approaches when training World Models.
- Advanced World Models Using Energy-Based Models (EBMs): Building on his foundational work with JEPA architectures, originally presented on his famous “A Path Towards Autonomous Machine Intelligence”, and materialize with I-JEPA and V-JEPA, Yann LeCun’s startup would, most likely, specialize in sophisticated world models that utilize EBMs. These world models (Non-generative, i.e discriminative) would leverage energy functions to facilitate complex interactions and enable AI systems to interpret, interact, and dynamically adapt to their environments (Reasoning). Employing EBMs allows these models to guide real-time decision-making by evaluating environmental dynamics, thus enhancing AI's ability to make informed decisions based on predictive, reasoning, and decision-making capabilities, mainly without or with minimal human supervision. Such world models could revolutionize industries that depend on navigating unpredictable environments.
What products would he create?
- MAIN - Advanced (Semi or Fully) Autonomous AI Cognitive Frameworks: Most likely, the main line of products could include new frameworks for developing OR directly deploying Autonomous AI applications that use SSL and World Models using EMBs, all embedded in highly-cognitive Reasoning & Decision Making frameworks to accomplish a wide variety of tasks. These could be geared towards robotics, autonomous vehicles, or virtual agents, enabling them to understand and navigate real-world environments and situations as well as handling multi-modal inputs with little or no human oversight. Most likely, he’d offer FULLY integrated solutions for physical or virtual agents. Agents being World Models + Reasoning (solution space search & optimization Algos) + Tools/Skills.
- AI Services for Developers: Following the model of companies like OpenAI, LeCun’s startup might offer AI as a Service (AIaaS). This would allow developers to integrate state-of-the-art AI capabilities into their applications without the overhead of developing proprietary models and decision-making frameworks. Most likely, he’d offer agents of some sort, that developers would integrate in their applications (physical or virtual). Again, Agents being World Models + Reasoning (solution space search & optimization Algos) + Tools/Skills.
- Educational and Research Tools: Reflecting his academic heritage, LeCun could also provide tools that facilitate and accelerate research and education in all fields, similar to DeepMind’s initiatives with AlphaFold. These tools would include models, simulations and interactive platforms that enable hands-on learning, experimentation and R&D with advanced AI technologies.
Strategic Considerations for his Startup:
- Industry Collaboration: Partnering with tech giants and academic institutions to foster innovation and stay at the forefront of AI research. The gravitational pull that his name creates would make this easy and a very strong strategic advantage.
- Open-Source Contributions: Following the trend of many AI advancements, releasing some technologies as open-source could help in setting industry standards and fostering a community around the startup’s products. Furthermore, by making certain technologies available to the public, LeCun's startup can foster external innovation. In turn, this external innovation can then be leveraged by his company to develop even more advanced products, creating a dynamic feedback loop that propels innovation forward.
- Regulatory Engagement: Given the ethical and societal implications of AI, part of the startup’s strategy would involve shaping and adhering to AI safety and ethics regulations. This approach becomes necessary and aligns closely with his well-known advocacy against a dystopian AI future, underscoring his commitment to ethical AI development.
His own recommendationsnbsp;
- Abandon generative models
- Abandon probabilistic model
- Abandon contrastive methods
- Abandon Reinforcement Learning
- NOTE: Use RL only when planning doesn’t yield the predicted outcome, to adjust the world model or the critic.
Conclusion
Yann LeCun’s startup would likely be a blend of rigorous research and practical application, aiming to push the boundaries of what AI can achieve while focusing on making AI more sustainable and accessible. His deep expertise in AI, combined with a forward-thinking approach to new AI paradigms like self-supervised learning, JEPA-based World Models and EBMs, would provide the foundation for a company that not only innovates but also influences future directions in AI technology.
