A report by the Wall Street Journal said Meta had repeatedly delayed plans to make the API available to developers and, as of Tuesday, had not set a launch date. The report cited people familiar with the matter.

However, Meta disputed suggestions that the project had stalled. A company spokesperson said on Wednesday that testing is already underway with a group of early partners and that the company still expects to release the API later this month.

“The muse spark API will be coming soon,” Meta AI Chief Alexandr Wang announced in a post on X in April.

Meta AI Unveils Spark to Power Next-Gen AI across Platforms

The API would allow developers to integrate Muse Spark into their own software and services. An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a software bridge that enables different systems to communicate and work together.

Meta introduced Muse Spark in April as the first model developed under its Superintelligence Labs initiative, which was created to strengthen the company’s position in the competitive AI market.

The model is designed to narrow the gap between Meta and competitors including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

While Muse Spark is already available to consumers through Meta’s applications, users can currently access it only through built-in modes such as Instant, Thinking and Contemplating. Developers still do not have access to a public API, and Meta has yet to release documentation, pricing details, rate limits or eligibility requirements.

The lack of information has created apprehension among developers hoping to build products around the model. Without a public timeline, waitlist or technical documentation, companies interested in integrating Muse Spark are unable to plan deployments or assess costs.

The delays also come at a sensitive time for Meta. Investors have been monitoring the company’s AI strategy as it spends heavily on infrastructure, talent and product development.

Questions about execution have grown following reports of an Instagram security incident involving Meta’s AI-powered support system, which exposed weaknesses in automated account management processes.

Earlier on Wednesday, Meta unveiled a new AI agent designed to help businesses handle day-to-day tasks, showing that the company is going beyond consumer chatbots and into enterprise services.

The launch highlights Meta’s goal to compete more directly with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google across multiple areas of the AI market.

Muse Spark is expected to bolster that strategy. It is the first in what Meta has described as a new generation of advanced models from its Superintelligence Labs unit.

However, the repeated postponements have left analysts, developers and investors waiting for evidence that the company can translate its AI investments into products that are ready for global use.

Access is still currently limited to a small group of testing partners, while the developer community is waiting for Meta to open the platform to the public.

This is one of the first big exits since Mark Zuckerberg reorganised Meta’s AI division under Superintelligence Labs.

LeCun, a Turing Award laureate and one of the pioneers of deep learning, is reportedly in early discussions with investors to raise funds for his new venture, which will centre on developing “world models”, AI systems designed to simulate and understand the real world more deeply. 

This approach aims to create machines that can learn and reason with a closer resemblance to human cognition.

His departure comes at a time when Meta is enhancing its drive to compete with OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic in the superintelligent systems space.

Mark Zuckerberg recently consolidated Meta’s AI research under Superintelligence Labs, placing Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of data-labelling firm Scale AI, in charge of the division.

This reorganisation meant that LeCun, who had long reported to Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, was reassigned to report directly to Wang, a move that, according to sources cited by the Financial Times, may have influenced his decision to leave.

LeCun’s planned exit reveals both a generational change in leadership and a potential divergence in vision between academic research and the dynamic, product-driven approach of Meta AI.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has yet to comment publicly on the reports. LeCun, too, has not issued an official statement.

Since joining Meta (then Facebook) in 2013, Yann LeCun has helped in promoting convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and self-supervised learning, two techniques that underpin today’s large-scale AI systems. 

His next startup could represent a return to the more exploratory and research-oriented roots that first defined his career.