Apple suffers another blow as AI leader joins Meta; exit to impact Siri

Apple Inc. has suffered a major blow to its artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions as one of its most senior AI engineers, Ruoming Pang, departs to join Meta,reported Bloomberg.

Pang, who led the iPhone maker’s foundational models team, is reportedly the latest in a string of high-profile recruits by Meta’s newly established superintelligence division.

Pang’s exit marks a significant setback for Apple’s internal AI efforts. Having joined Apple from Alphabet Inc. in 2021, he was heading a 100-strong team responsible for developing large language models that underpin key features in the company’s AI suite, Apple Intelligence. These models are integrated into core functionalities such as email and article summaries, Genmoji creation, and smart notification filtering on Apple devices.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Meta lured Pang with a lucrative compensation package reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars annually. The move is part of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive campaign to bolster the company’s AI capabilities, which has already seen the recruitment of major names such as Alexandr Wang from Scale AI, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and startup founder Daniel Gross.

Meta confirmed Pang’s appointment on Monday, though Apple, Pang himself, OpenAI, and Anthropic, other key players in the AI space.

Zuckerberg’s AI strategy involves heavy investment and hands-on recruitment efforts. In a bid to outpace rivals like OpenAI and Google, Meta is funnelling tens of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure, including new data centres and proprietary chips. The company’s superintelligence initiative, announced last month, aims to create systems capable of human-level or superior reasoning across tasks.

Pang’s departure comes at a turbulent time for Apple’s AI division. Insiders report growing unrest within the foundational models team, internally referred to as the AFM group, following increased scrutiny from Apple’s top brass. The team’s morale has reportedly taken a hit due to internal deliberations over outsourcing Siri’s capabilities to third-party models developed by OpenAI or Anthropic, sidelining the in-house models Pang’s team had been building.

Further compounding the situation, Apple’s broader AI leadership has seen a shake-up in recent months. John Giannandrea, formerly overseeing Apple’s AI strategy, has seen several consumer-facing functions, including Siri and machine learning frameworks, reassigned to other executives. Siri’s future development is now steered by Mike Rockwell, known for his work on the Vision Pro headset, while Craig Federighi, head of software engineering, is overseeing the broader AI roadmap.

With Pang’s exit, the AFM team will now be led by Zhifeng Chen. Under a restructured hierarchy, Chen will oversee several mid-level managers, potentially including Chong Wang, Zirui Wang, Chung-Cheng Chiu, and Guoli Yin, with engineers reporting up through this new layered management system.

The vacuum left by Pang could trigger further attrition. Several team members are reportedly planning exits, with Meta seen as a likely destination for many. Last month, Tom Gunter, one of Pang’s key deputies, also left Apple, signalling broader instability within the AI division.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)