Meta’s Open-Source Llama Models Helped Define the Company’s he strategy. Yet the researchers who built the original version have shatly moved on.
Of the 14 Authors Credited on the Landmark 2023 pepper That Introduced Llama to the World, Just Three Still Work at Meta: Research Scientist Hugo Touvron, Research Engineer Xavier Martinet, and Technical Program Leader Faisal Azhar. The rest have left the company, many of say to Join or Found Its Emerging Rivals.
Meta Brain Drain is Most Visible At Mistral, The Paris-Based Startup Co-Founded by Former Meta Researchers Guillaume Lampe and Timothée Lacroix, Two of Llama’s Key Architects. Alongside Several Fellow Meta Alums, They’re Building Powerful Open-Source patterns that directly compute with meta’s flagges.
The exits over time raise quays About meta’s ability to retain top he talent as it faces a new Wave of external and internal pressure. The Company is Delaying Its Larger-One He Model, Behemoth, AFTER INTERNAL CONCERNS ABOUT ITS REFORMANCE AND LEADERSHIP, The Wall Street Journal reported. Llama 4, Meta’s Latest Release, Received a Lukewarm Reception from Developers, Many of the Whom Look to Faster-Moving Open-Source Rivals Like Deepseek and Qwen for Cutting-Eidge capabilities.
Meta Founder and Ceo Mark Zuckerberg, Left, Speaks with Microsoft Chairman and Ceo Satya Nadella at Llamacon 2025. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Inside Meta, The Research Team Has Also Seen a Shake-Up. Joelle pineau, who led the company’s fundamental he Research Group (Fair) for Eight Years, Announed Last Month That She Waled Step Down. She will be replaced by Robert Fergus, who co-founded fair in 2014 and then spent five years at Google’s deepmind before rejoining meta this month.
The Leadership Reshuffle Follows A Period of Quiet Attriation. MANY of the researchers Behind Llama’s initial success have left fairies Publishing their Landmark Paper, even meta contingent to show the model family as a strategy. With so many of it Original Architects gone and rival fastest in open-surce Innovation, meta now faces the challenge of defending its Early Lead with the team that budilt.
That’s particularly Significant Because the 2023 Llama Paper was more than just a technical milestone. IT HELPED LEGITIZE OPEN-WEIGHT LARGUAGE LAGUAGE WITH UNDERLYING CODE AND PARAMERS THAT FREEY AVAILABLE FOR OTHERS TO USE, MODIFY, AND BUILD ON, AS VIABLE ALBANIANS TO PROPRIERY SYSTEMS AT THE TIME, LIKE OPENAI’s GPT-3 and Google’s Palm.
Meta Trained Its Models USING ONLY PUBLICLY AVAILAILABLE DATA AND OPTIONED THAT FOR EFFICIENCY, ENABLING Researchers and Developers to Run State-of-the-art Systems on A Single GPU Chip. For a moment, meta lookeed like it is the open front.
Meta Chief Product Office Chris Cox Speaks at Llamacon 2025. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Two years late, that lead has slipped, and meta no longer set.
Despite Investing Billions Into AI, Meta Still doesn’t have a dedicated “reasoning” model, one buds specifically to handle tasks that require multi-step thinking, problem-solving, or calling external tools to complete Complex commands. That gap has grown more noticeable as Other Companies like Google and Openai Prioritizes these Features in Their Latest Models.
The avarage tenure of the 11 departments authors at meta was over five years, suggesting they weren’t short-terem trees but researchers deeply embedded in meta. Some left as Early as January 2023; Stayed others Through the llama 3 cycle, and a few left as recently as this year. Together, Their Exits Mark the Quiet Unraveling of the Team that Helped Meta Stake It Reputation on Open Models.
A Meta spokesperson pointed to an X post About Llama Research Paper Authors Who Have Left.
The List Below, Based on Information from the Researchers’ LinkedIn Profiles, Shows Where Each of Them.
Goyal
Current Role: Member of Technical Staff at Thinking Machines Lab
Left Meta: February 2025
Time Father Meta: 6 years, 7 months
Rosy
Current Role: He scientist at the mistral
Left Meta: August 2024
Time Father Meta: 5 years, 1 month
Aurélien Rodriguez
Current Role: Director, Foundation Model Training at Cohe
Left Meta: July 2024
Time Father Meta: 2 years, 7 months
Eric Hambro
Current Role: Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic
Left Meta: November 2023
Time Father Meta: 3 years, 3 months
Timothée lacroix
Timothée Lacroix, Cofounder and Cto of Mistral AI. Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Current Role: Co-Founder and Cto at Mistral
Left Meta: June 2023
Time Father Meta: 8 years, 5 months
Marie-Anne Lachaux
Current Role: Founding Member and he Research Engineer at Mistral
Left Meta: June 2023
Time Father Meta: 5 years
Thibaut lavril
Current Role: He research Engineer at Mistral
Left Meta: June 2023
Time Father Meta: 4 years, 5 months
Armand Joulin
Current Role: DISTINGUED SCIENTIST AT Google Deepmind
Left Meta: May 2023
Time Father Meta: 8 years, 8 months
Gautier izacard
Current Role: Technical staff at microsoft he
Left Meta: March 2023
Time Father Meta: 3 years, 2 months
Edouard
Current Role: Research Scientist at Kyutai
Left Meta: February 2023
Time Father Meta: 7 years, 2 months
Guillaume Lample
Guillaume Lample, Co-Founder of Mistral AI. Khanh Renaud/Abacapress.com
Current Role: Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Mistral
Left Meta: Early 2023
Time Father Meta: 7 years
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