Llama AI Pioneer Joelle Pineau Exits Meta After 8 Years as Executive Restructuring Continues

Key Takeaways

• Meta’s vice president for AI research, Joelle Pineau, is leaving her role.
• Pineau’s exit comes amid an ongoing executive reshuffle at Meta.
• Other recent departures include Asia Pacific VP Dan Neary and President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg.

Amid an ongoing executive reshuffle, Meta’s head of artificial intelligence (AI) research, Joelle Pineau, is leaving the company.

During her eight years at Meta, Pineau worked on many of the company’s most notable AI projects, including PyTorch and Llama.

Joelle Pineau To Depart Meta

In a LinkedIn post on Tuesday, March 1, Pineau announced her intention to step down as Meta’s vice president for AI research, with her last day being May 30.

Pineau used her statement to emphasize Meta’s contributions to open-source AI, which include popular machine learning libraries like FAISS (Facebook AI Similarity Search) and PyTorch.

Looking forward, she said she will be “taking some time to observe and to reflect, before jumping into a new adventure.”

Pineau initially joined Meta as a researcher in May 2017 and was promoted to vice president in March 2023. As head of AI, she has overseen the development of Meta’s flagship foundation model, Llama, which has become a core component of the firm’s AI strategy.

Meta’s Departing Execs

Pineau’s announcement follows a similar one from Dan Neary, Meta’s vice president of Asia Pacific.

Prior to that, Nick Clegg stepped down as president of global affairs in January.

Neither Pineau nor Neary suggested they had been forced out, positioning their decision to leave against the backdrop of more than a decade each at Meta.

On the other hand, Clegg’s replacement by Joel Kaplan was widely viewed as a strategic move by Meta that could help it curry favor with the Trump administration.

Increasing Compensation for Top Tech Talent

Besides politics and natural employee attrition, there may be another factor behind Meta’s recent executive exits: a competitive labor market for top technology leaders.

A recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing reveals plans to dramatically increase the bonuses it pays its executives in 2025.

From just 75% of their base salaries, executive bonuses could rise to 200%, a move Meta said was needed to bring its compensation packages in line with those offered by industry peers.

Besides its Big Tech rivals, Meta must also compete with the allure of entrepreneurialism. In the realm of AI especially, a number of former Meta employees have opted to found their own startups in recent years.