Apple’s AI Team Faces Another Wave of Talent Drain

iPhone maker Apple has encountered another wave of talent drain in the field of artificial intelligence. It is reported that Jian Zhang, Apple’s lead AI researcher in robotics, has left the company to join its rival, Meta.

On Tuesday, Meta confirmed that Jian Zhang has joined its robotics studio. Additionally, according to insiders, three other researchers in related fields are also set to leave Apple’s large language model team, further destabilizing the company’s internal team.

Jian Zhang is a robotics research expert who led a small team of scholars in the field during his tenure at Apple, focusing on automation technology and the application of AI in related products. The team was part of Apple’s artificial intelligence and machine learning department.

This series of employee departures began in July this year when Ruoming Pang, who built Apple’s large model team, joined Meta with a reported compensation package of $200 million. The lucrative offers have attracted numerous industry talents, and since then, Apple’s AI engineers Tom Gunter, Mark Lee, Bowen Zhang, Yun Zhu, and Frank Chu have also joined Meta.

For Apple, this talent drain undoubtedly adds more chaos to its already struggling AI projects. The company is internally discussing whether to rely more on external technology rather than solely on its own models.

In the field of artificial intelligence, Apple has been lagging and delayed a major update for its voice assistant, Siri. After a series of high-level personnel changes, the company is also considering using third-party AI models to power its voice assistant services instead of relying entirely on in-house technology.

However, Meta’s efforts to recruit talent have not been entirely smooth. According to reports, some recently hired AI researchers have chosen to leave the company.