Yann LeCun says AI is 'not smart', builds startup for a new approach

Yann LeCun, one of the leading figures in artificial intelligence, says today's systems, however impressive, are not genuinely 'smart'. In his view, the current large language models handle text skilfully but lack the ability to understand the physical world and to plan.

To close that gap, LeCun has founded a new start-up. The goal is to develop an AI architecture that can build a model of the world, grasp cause and effect, and reason more flexibly. The approach points in a different direction from the industry's current path, which leans heavily on language models.

The debate speaks to questions about the real limits of AI at a time when investment has reached record levels. Whether LeCun's venture attracts funding, and whether the architecture he proposes works in practice, will be among the storylines the sector follows closely.