Meta has appointed Robert Fergus as the new head of its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab, as reported by Bloomberg.
Fergus brings valuable experience to the role, having spent about five years as a research director at Google DeepMind, according to his LinkedIn. Before his time at Google, he was a research scientist at Meta.
Since its inception in 2013, Meta’s FAIR lab has encountered some hurdles, as detailed in a report from Fortune. The lab was responsible for pioneering research on Meta’s initial AI models, such as Llama 1 and Llama 2. Recently, however, many researchers have left the unit, opting to join other startups, companies, or even Meta’s newer GenAI group, which has been busy developing Llama 4.
In April, Joelle Pineau, the former VP of AI Research at Meta, announced her departure to pursue a new opportunity.
