Elon Musk is criticized by Meta AI chief LeCun for making "blatantly false" predictions and spreading conspiracy theories.

• Elon Musk and Yann LeCun, the Chief AI Scientist at Meta, have been engaging in debates on social media.
• Musk was criticized by LeCun for his treatment of scientists and news organizations and for spreading false conspiracies on social media.
• Their companies are competing for engineering as the AI battle heats up.

Yann LeCun, the chief artificial intelligence scientist of 's company, has spent much of the past week debating with Elon Musk about the CEO's treatment of scientists and news organizations, and for spreading false conspiracies on social media.

""Although I own a 2015 S and a 2023 S, I disagree with Musk on several issues," LeCun wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, on Sunday."

The conflict started on May 27 when Musk encouraged people to apply for jobs at his AI startup, xAI. The company, which recently announced it had raised $6 billion, is competing with high-profile startups like OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as top tech companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta for AI engineers.

Meta is distinguishing itself in the realm of large language models (LLMs) by making its Llama family of models open source, allowing other researchers to utilize, modify or replicate them for their own AI projects.

LeCun responded to Musk's promotional post by stating that he would join xAI if he could tolerate a boss who made unfulfillable promises, claimed AI would destroy everyone, and spread baseless "conspiracy theories" on his own social media platform.

On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci testified publicly for the first time since leaving the government in 2022, facing criticism from Republicans who have long claimed he lied about the genesis of Covid-19.

Fauci is loved by Democrats, according to Musk, who posted on X. He also unfollowed LeCun.

LeCun's response to being unfollowed was that it must have been due to his tweet defending Anthony Fauci.

Elon's call for Fauci to be prosecuted and imprisoned is a high point of anti-science a--holery.

Few tech leaders have openly criticized Musk or bet against his companies, despite his long-standing public dispute with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, previously shorted Tesla stock. Mark Cuban, an investor, criticized Elon Musk for opposing corporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Meta, has accused Tesla of consumer fraud.

LeCun expressed disagreement with Musk's secrecy in developing new technology and products, as well as the "blatantly false" predictions he makes public, and the way he shares "dangerous political opinions" and conspiracy theories, in posts on X and LinkedIn over the weekend.

Since January 2022, LeCun has published 80 technical papers, despite Musk's claim that he has been "out of touch with AI for a long time."

LeCun and Musk didn't respond to requests for comment on Monday.

LeCun criticized Musk's predictions that AI would arrive next year and that Tesla would bring 1 million robotaxis to market by 2020 as "blatantly false."

In 2019, Musk made a promise to investors that robotaxis would make Tesla worth $500 billion. However, despite Tesla's market cap reaching $1 trillion in 2021, the company has yet to deliver a single robotaxi.

Neuralink, Musk's brain implant startup, has ambitious goals. Musk claims that Neuralink's devices can enhance "superhuman cognition" and solve autism and schizophrenia. In a recruitment event in late 2022, Musk announced his plans to get an implant himself.

The company has implemented its flagship system in one patient but has not obtained FDA approval for its technology.

Musk's only technical publication on Google Scholar is related to Neuralink, which was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research in 2019. He is listed as the lead author, while the blanket term "Neuralink" is listed as the second author.

""I hope the scientists behind this collective name won't die bitter and forgotten," LeCun said on X."

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