Yann LeCun on AI: getting the idea is easy, building it is hard, making it work is hardest
rsalakhu · x · 2026-10-08
Yann LeCun used the history of the helicopter as an analogy: da Vinci sketched the idea, Paul Cornu built one that lifted off in 1907, Bréguet invented the swashplate, Focke flew a controllable contra-rotating design—but it took Sikorsky's variable-pitch tail rotor in 1939 to make helicopters practical.
His point: 'Getting the basic idea is the easy part. Building it is harder. Making it work is even harder'—a framing often applied to AI's gap between concepts and working systems.
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