Ok yeah but it’s not a certain bet. Resources are limited and you gotta allocate them efficiently.

10% chance to be market leader doesn’t sound as good as 60% second place to them for example

[delayed]

The job of the CEO is to assess the research risk correctly. Zuck made the right bet here to replace him.

The guy that named his company after his own diversion?

It's his call for sure, but rather funny as an argument.

The fact that someone made a mistake before doesn't mean that they will always make wrong calls.

not as a matter of certainty, but it certainly increases the bayesian prior probability of their calls being wrong

Maybe he is keeping the name as a constant reminder of the mistaken. Like Berkshire Hathaway: Warren Buffett says Berkshire Hathaway is the “dumbest” stock he ever bought. https://www.cnbc.com/2010/10/18/warren-buffett-buying-berksh...

They can buy LeCun’s new thing if it works out.

> It's not a distraction if the research pans out

It is because even if it would pan out, it would mean temporarily losing AI leadership, reducing stock price, losing the ability to hire talent, and by virtue of that losing the opportunity permanently.