• Joaquin Quiñonero Candela has left Facebook after serving as its head of Responsible AI.
  • Candela was tapped by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to battle misinformation on Facebook.
  • Misinformation is still widespread on the largest social-media platform.

Joaquin Quiñonero Candela, who most recently led Facebook's Responsible AI team, has left the company.

Candela's work, and hardships leading the team tasked with reining in Facebook's artificial intelligence, was the subject of an MIT Tech Review feature earlier this year, to which the company strongly objected. The researcher announced his departure on his LinkedIn profile and on the Partnership on AI website, where he still serves on the board of directors.

MIT Tech Review described Candela being forced into an impossible situation of fixing AI at Facebook after he helped build a lot of the tools the company relied on.

"I am taking a break to fully support my wife with rebuilding her career, and to enjoy our kids before they all leave the nest," the former distinguished technical lead wrote on LinkedIn. "I recently resigned from Facebook after 9.5 amazing years in order to create the space I need."

In an earlier Facebook post, he said he was taking an "internet sabbatical." Facebook confirmed his departure and denied that it was related to the MIT Tech Review story.

Candela worked on AI at Facebook for more than nine years, starting with advertising optimization using machine learning and ending his career at the company leading the Responsible AI team. He was critical in building Facebook's machine-learning pipeline, which was used to spin up new ML algorithms for projects around the company.

He was also a part of the company's use of AI to monitor live videos streaming on Facebook. In 2016, Candela said he envisioned Facebook's video platform as a custom TV channel that would automatically show users live videos of what they were most interested in, based on their Facebook interactions.

MIT Tech Review reported Candela had direct access to Mark Zuckerberg as a member of the Applied Machine Learning team, which sat in close proximity to the CEO. Zuckerberg also relied heavily on Candela's expertise in arranging the company's response to misinformation on the site, which it still struggles to contain.

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