Facebook Inc. is restructuring its artificial intelligence research teams, hiring a new leader to head up its research lab and Applied Machine Learning group, which implements AI tech into many of its products.

Yann LeCun (pictured), a prominent AI expert who founded and led Facebook’s AI research lab, is stepping down to take on a new role at the company.

His replacement is Jérôme Pesenti, former chief technology officer of IBM Corp.’s big data group and most recently the chief executive officer at an AI startup called BenevolentTech. At IBM, Pesenti helped lead development of its Watson AI system.

The reshuffle sees LeCun become Facebook’s new chief AI scientist, while Pesenti will lead the AI research lab and also the AML unit, alongside its current head Joaquin Quiñonero Candela. The combined team will report directly to Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer.

“There was a need for someone to basically oversee all the AI at Facebook, across research, development, and have a connection with product,” LeCun told Quartz, which first reported the news. LeCun and Pesenti both confirmed the shakeup on their personal Facebook pages.

“In my new role, I will make sure we continue advancing the state of AI research and help make Facebook products more intelligent, useful and meaningful,” Pesenti said.

The announcement of the move seems to be well-timed, as Facebook has just announced major changes to the way it prioritizes what content shows up in users’ news feeds. It also said it’s planning to rank trusted news sources as part of an ongoing effort to combat fake news.

Facebook has previously been accused of relying too much on AI to fix these problems, and will be hoping that the new organizational structure can help it better apply the technology to areas where it’s truly useful.

In another management move at Facebook today, Chief Marketing Officer Gary Briggs posted that he’s retiring after more than four years in the job.

Image: Yann LeCun/Facebook