LeCun, a Turing Prize winner, stated that had he accepted the role, he might have influenced Google's research culture to be more open and ambitious earlier. He also suggested that Google has been slow and overly cautious with its AI development, a claim backed by critics. Google has not yet responded to these comments.
Key takeaways:
- Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, turned down a job offer for director of research at Google in 2002 due to several reasons including the compensation package and the size of the company.
- LeCun said the salary was low and the stock option package would have ended up stratospheric, but he needed money to support his teenage sons at the time.
- He also mentioned that the company had 600 employees and no revenue at the time, which meant the role would have involved many things other than research.
- LeCun believes that if he had joined Google, he might have made the research culture at the company more open and ambitious earlier.