--- title: "Meta’s Head of AI Has Some Interesting Beliefs About Dominance and Submission" description: "Over the weekend, Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, took to Twitter to proclaim that humans are hardwired for either \"dominance or submission.\"" date: "2023-04-21" modified: "2023-04-21" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/meta-head-ai-dominance-submission" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Meta" tags: - "ai" - "Meta" - "the digest" - "yann lecun" --- # Meta’s Head of AI Has Some Interesting Beliefs About Dominance and Submission ![Over the weekend, Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, took to Twitter to proclaim that humans are hardwired for either "dominance or submission."]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Thanks For Sharing Yann LeCun — Meta-formerly-Facebook's [outspoken]() chief AI scientist — kept things extremely normal this weekend when he took to Twitter to announce that humanity is but an endless struggle over evolution-ordained domination and submission. "Most people have no problem leading groups of people who are smarter than themselves," [tweeted]() LeCun, who's also an [NYU professor](). "Political, business, and military leaders have staff and advisors who are often smarter individually or collectively. Why would people feel threatened leading machines that are smarter than them?" "Humans are hardwired by evolution to be a social species with hierarchical structure," he [added](). "This includes hardwired drives for dominance or submission. AI assistants will simply have hardwired drives to submit and not dominate." ## Backtrack City As you'd expect, some people took issue with LeCun's hardwiring claims, arguing that similar — and heavily debated — ideologies have been used to justify a lot of [humanity's dehumanizing evils](). "We should be immensely worried that the people with the most power to sculpt the social architecture of the next decades promote the same kinds of pseudoscience used to justify slavery and segregation," [wrote]() one concerned netizen. "Keep your political beliefs out of the future of AI," [added]() another, "especially the stuff that's been used to justify colonialism and racism for centuries." These criticisms seemingly put LeCun on the defensive, causing the scientist to backtrack to what felt like a borderline nonsensical degree. "I do not believe in any 'natural hierarchical structure,'" LeCun [wrote]() in a response to his critics — directly contradicting himself — and said that he considers himself politically left-leaning. "But I don't let my political opinions get in the way of well-established science." "The fact that hierarchical structures exist in human societies (which is undeniable)," he [continued](), "doesn't mean there exist \[sic\] some sort of preordained 'natural' hierarchy." Puzzled? Us too. ## Not Not Important It's hard what to make of LeCun's self-defeating comments. But considering that he's undoubtedly one of the foremost figures in the field of AI — a technology that might just prove to be society-transforming — it's probably worth paying attention to. Anyways, we'd love to get [Meta overlord Mark Zuckerberg]()'s take on the matter. **More on LeCun's contributions:** [*Facebook Created an Advanced AI and It Won't Stop Criticizing Facebook*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()