India AI Impact Summit 2026: Yann LeCun calls AGI overhyped, AI should amplify human intelligence

At the AI Impact Summit 2026, there are wide range of discussions surrounding “Artificial General Intelligence" (AGI). However, Yann LeCun, the AMI Labs Executive Chairman and computer scientist, called the obsession with AGI an overhype. He highlighted that the AI will serve as a powerful "amplifier" for human capability, acting as smarter assistants that humans will manage.

LeCun said, “I think the most interesting thing that we're going to build is an amplifier for human intelligence. So maybe not an entity that surpasses human intelligence, and in all the men, all that will happen at some point. But it is something that will amplify human intelligence, it weighs, well, et cetera, in progress.”

He also highlighted that today’s Language Models (LLMs) are good for information retrieval, but they lack the "world models" required for human-level reasoning.

Students are teaching professors

LeCun also talked about  the traditional hierarchy of learning, suggesting that as AI advances, the role of a leader will also change. It will not only affect enterprises, but politics and academia.

“In fact, that's the whole point. You need to, you know, attract people who are smarter than you because that's what makes you more productive.”  

He added, “For an academic students who are smarter than their professor and teach, you know, it's not the professor that teaches graduate students. It's the other way around, actually."

Why LLMs are a 'dead end' for AGI

During the discussion, LeCun acknowledged how AI is being “incredibly useful,” but he argued that they lack true thinking capabilities. 

“I think there's a lot of confusion really. Because we tend to anthropomorphise systems that can reduce certain human functions... LLMs are incredibly useful... But at it ends, to some extent, except for a few domains, are mostly information retrieval systems.”

“They can compress a lot of factual knowledge that has been previously produced by humans, and can give ET access to it,” he said. 

He suggested that countries with a bright youth population, like India and African nations, are where the most creative AI breakthroughs will originate. 

“Well, long term is going to come for countries that have favourable demographics, and that means India, Africa, you know, the youth is the most creative part of keeping that. ... The top scientists are the future. In fact, many of the present are from India, and from in the future, will be from, will see, Africa,” LeCun said.