History of Meta AI in Timeline

Meta AI is a research division within Meta focused on advancing artificial intelligence and augmented reality. Their work spans a broad range of AI fields, including natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and machine learning. The goal is to push the boundaries of AI research and translate these advancements into practical applications that benefit Meta's products and services, as well as the broader AI community through open-source contributions and publications. Meta AI is pivotal in shaping the future of Meta's technological endeavors and its role in the metaverse.

2013: Meta AI (FAIR) Founded

In 2013, Meta AI, initially named Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR), was founded with Yann LeCun appointed as its director.

2014: Vladimir Vapnik Joins

In 2014, Vladimir Vapnik joined Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR).

2016: Partnership on AI

In 2016, FAIR partnered with Google, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft to establish the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society.

2017: PyTorch Release

In 2017, FAIR released PyTorch, an open-source machine learning framework.

2018: Jérôme Pesenti Assumes Role

In 2018, Jérôme Pesenti became the president of FAIR, succeeding Yann LeCun, who transitioned to the role of chief AI scientist. The organization had around 200 staff in 2018.

November 2022: Galactica Withdrawn

In November 2022, Galactica, a large language model, was withdrawn after three days due to the generation of racist and inaccurate content.

2022: Switched to Nvidia GPUs

In 2022, Meta switched from CPUs and in-house custom chips to Nvidia GPUs, requiring the redesign of several data centers.

February 2023: LLaMA Release

In February 2023, LLaMA, a large language model supporting 7B to 65B parameters, was released.

May 2024: Chatbot Summarizes News

Since May 2024, the chatbot has been summarizing news from various outlets without direct links to original articles, including in Canada where news links are banned on its platforms, raising ethical and legal concerns.