Apple continues to lose AI specialists to Meta

Apple continues to lose key experts in the field of artificial intelligence, conceding these specialists to Meta. Recently, the fourth AI specialist left Apple to join Meta, as reported by Bloomberg. This is Bowen Zhang, who was part of the team working on Apple's core models, and he became the latest employee to leave the company for a position at Meta. Ruiming Pang, head of Apple's core models group and one of the first AI researchers at the company, also transitioned to Meta. Following his departure, several employees who worked under his leadership did the same.

Meta is actively seeking and hiring specialists for its Superintelligence Labs — a division that creates advanced artificial intelligence systems capable of performing tasks at or above human intelligence levels. Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, offers AI engineers substantial compensation packages to attract them from other companies. Reports indicate that Pang received over $200 million, including a high base salary, signing bonus, and stock rewards. This significantly exceeds the compensation of most Apple employees, except for executives.

It is evident that other AI engineers who have left Apple are also receiving attractive offers that the company is not prepared to compete with. Last month, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, stated that Meta was offering signing bonuses of up to $100 million. Meta continues to hire specialists from Apple, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Bloomberg notes that Apple is trying to raise salaries within its core models team, but still cannot match Meta's offers. The loss of key employees could lead to Apple falling behind in the competition in the field of artificial intelligence. Competitors like Google and Samsung already have much more advanced AI features. This year, Apple was forced to postpone promised Siri features until 2026.

The company is currently restructuring its AI teams under the leadership of Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell, who was responsible for developing Apple Vision Pro. Rumors suggest that Apple is considering the possibility of utilizing technologies from Anthropic or OpenAI for future AI features, particularly to create its own version of language models for Siri, rather than developing its own systems.

Discussions about reliance on third-party AI technologies have caused a decline in morale within the core models team, some of whom are already actively interviewing at other companies. Meanwhile, Apple's management is trying to reassure employees of their commitment to in-house development of artificial intelligence.