Posted 1/5/2024, 5:32:14 PM
LeCun Passed on Lucrative Google Job Due to Priorities of Family, Pure Research
- LeCun turned down a director of research role at Google in 2002 due to low pay, especially as he needed to support his teenage sons
- Google only had 600 employees and no revenue at the time, so the role would have involved more management vs research
- LeCun wanted to refocus on research areas like machine learning instead of taking on a more corporate strategy role
- His family didn't want to move to California at the time
- LeCun believes if he had joined Google, he may have influenced company culture to make research more ambitious/open