Yann LeCun reportedly leaving Meta to launch new AI startup

Key Takeaway: FT reports that Yann LeCun is preparing to leave Meta to found a startup likely built on his JEPA vision, after months of internal friction over research controls, org shifts, and disagreement with the LLM-first playbook.

More Insights:

• Early investor talks underway; no official comment from Meta or LeCun; his NYU post stays.

• Frustration cited over stricter internal publication reviews seen as curbing academic freedom.

• FAIR’s influence reportedly waned amid layoffs and a shift to a product-led lab; LeCun was said to report into it.

• He’s publicly distanced himself from Llama models and has long criticized LLM-centric AI as overhyped.

• New venture is expected to pursue JEPA: world-model learning focused on prediction, reasoning, and planning over text generation.

Why it matters: If a Turing winner walks away from Big Tech to bet on non-LLM architectures, it signals a real pivot point—capital and talent may flow into alternative paths, accelerating progress toward agents that understand and plan in the world rather than just autocomplete it.

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SoftBank’s Nvidia sale rattles market, raises questions

Key Takeaway: SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son sold the firm’s entire $5.8B Nvidia stake—about 32.1M shares—likely near peak levels to re-deploy billions into an all-in AI strategy, jolting markets and reviving questions about his high-conviction style.

More Insights:

• Sale spooked traders: Nvidia fell ~3% after the disclosure despite analysts saying it isn’t a bearish call on the company.

• Proceeds are earmarked for AI: a planned $30B commitment to OpenAI and hopes to join a proposed $1T AI manufacturing hub in Arizona.

• Second full Nvidia exit: unlike the ill-timed 2019 sale (shares that’d be >$150B today), this one came ~14% below NVDA’s all-time high.

• Son’s boom-bust cadence: from a $70B dot-com loss to a $20M Alibaba bet worth ~$150B by 2020.

• Risk tolerance on display: Vision Fund’s Saudi backing and the costly WeWork saga ($11.5B equity + $2.2B debt losses) underscore his appetite for outsized bets.

Why it matters: If Son is right, the next leg of value won’t be in AI winners like Nvidia’s stock but in owning and building the AI infrastructure and models themselves; if he’s wrong, it’s another late-cycle swing—either way, his move signals capital rushing from chip exposure to full-stack AI bets, a shift that could reshape who captures the next decade of tech profits.

Rebalancing the gut: How AI solved a 25-year Crohn's disease mystery

Key Takeaway: UC San Diego scientists used AI plus lab and mouse studies to show that NOD2 must bind girdin to steer macrophages toward healing; common Crohn’s mutations break this link, tipping the gut into chronic inflammation.

More Insights:

• AI parsed thousands of samples to define a 53-gene macrophage signature separating inflammatory from tissue-repairing cells.

• NOD2’s specific region binds girdin in noninflammatory macrophages, suppressing runaway inflammation and clearing microbes.

• The most common Crohn’s-risk NOD2 mutation deletes the girdin-binding section, derailing macrophage balance.

• Girdin-deficient mice developed dysbiosis, small-intestinal inflammation, and often fatal sepsis, confirming causality.

• The work resolves a decades-long debate over how the first Crohn’s gene actually drives disease.

Why it matters: If Crohn’s stems from a broken NOD2–girdin handshake, future therapies can move beyond blanket immunosuppression to precisely “retrain” macrophages and restore balance—turning a 25-year mystery into a targeted path for treatment.

Other stuff

• Contacted by the US Secret Service & the AI Surveillance Center Dystopia

• Anthropic Is on Track to Turn a Profit Much Faster Than OpenAI

• Google Pixel update adds battery-saving maps mode, AI photo remixing, and smarter notifications

• Matthew McConaughey, Michael Caine Ink Deals for AI-Generated versions of Their Voices With ElevenLabs. McConaughey also invests.

• ‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry accuses AI hyperscalers of artificially boosting earnings

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