Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is part of a consortium of tech giants, including Google and OpenAI, that are actively involved in the development of large language models to enhance AI solutions. Yann LeCun, the chief AI scientist at Meta, recently shared an interesting anecdote about Google co-founder and former CEO, Larry Page, offering him a job in the early 2000s, which he ultimately declined.
LeCun’s story began when he posted about a project called DjVu, which aimed to create an efficient image compression format for distributing high-resolution scanned documents over the internet. During a related conversation, LeCun revealed that Page had heard him speak about DjVu while Page was still a PhD student at Stanford around 1998. Astonishingly, Page extended an offer to LeCun to become the head of research at Google in early 2002.
LeCun, however, had four significant reasons for declining the job. Firstly, in January 2002, Google had a mere 600 employees and had not yet generated any revenue, making it challenging to conduct meaningful research at that stage. LeCun’s passion lied in basic research in machine learning, computer vision, robotics, and computational neuroscience, rather than corporate strategy and product development.
Secondly, LeCun cited the low salary offered by Google. Although he recognized the potential for substantial stock options, he needed immediate cash due to having teenage sons approaching college age. Additionally, the higher cost of living in Silicon Valley compared to New Jersey factored into his decision.
Thirdly, LeCun’s family hesitated to move to California, considering the challenge of uprooting their teenagers from their current environment. Making such a drastic change would have only resulted in resentment towards him.
Lastly, LeCun had recently joined the NEC Research Institute in Princeton after leaving AT&T, where he expected to continue his research in machine learning, computer vision, robotics, and neuroscience. However, he soon discovered that the institute was quickly transforming into an applied research lab, prompting him to depart for New York University after just 18 months.
Reflecting on his decision, LeCun believes that had he accepted Page’s offer, he might have influenced Google’s research culture to be more open and ambitious sooner. However, navigating these personal and professional considerations ultimately led him down a different path.
The source of the article is from the blog mivalle.net.ar