Apple Loses Another Key AI Leader to Meta's Superintelligence Labs

[MacRumors]

Apple has had yet another AI executive poached by Meta, despite reports that the social networking company is slowing hiring (via Bloomberg).

Frank Chu, one of Apple's team leaders focused on cloud infrastructure, training, and search, will join Meta's Superintelligence Labs, a division tasked with building advanced AI systems capable of performing at or beyond human-level intelligence.

Chu was involved with managing Apple's cloud-based large language models (LLMs), and was also influential in developing search features for Siri and Apple's entertainment services. For Meta, Chu will work on a new team called MSL Infra, responsible for AI infrastructure development.

Meta has spent billions of dollars on recruitment for its Superintelligence group in recent months, but the company is said to be slowing down hiring over concerns of an overheated market. The pause went into effect last week amid a broader restructuring of the group.

Fears that investments in AI are moving too fast weren't helped by reports earlier this week that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told a group of journalists that he believes AI is in a bubble. There was a broader sell-off of U.S. technology stocks following the news.

Apple has hemorrhaged around a dozen artificial intelligence staff to rivals since January. The exodus of staff from Apple's AI team over the last seven months has seen senior researchers leave variously for Meta, OpenAI, xAI, Cohere, and others.

One of the most notable recent departures was Ruoming Pang, head of Apple's Foundational Models team, who joined Meta last month after being lured by CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a $200 million pay package.

The talent drain coincides with Apple's struggle to update Siri by integrating LLMs. A chatbot-like version of the virtual assistant was one of the key Apple Intelligence features that Apple promoted at last year's WWWDC, but it has yet to arrive.

Apple is said to be considering using third-party AI models for Siri rather than its in-house technology, following an executive restructuring. During Apple's recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is "making good progress on a more personalized Siri" that is powered by Apple Intelligence, and he reiterated that the features will be available next year.

Article Link: Apple Loses Another Key AI Leader to Meta's Superintelligence Labs

 

[GuruZac]

There must be something with either the culture or infrastructure at Apple to be so profitable, have so much cash on hand, and yet they continue to bleed talent. Not to mention their AI and virtual assistant being ever behind the competition.

 

[Charliebird]

I’m so confused. Today I read that Zuckerberg is cutting back on AI development spending and restructuring how it's run. There's talk of layoffs and even a bubble. Then I see Meta is still poaching AI engineers from Apple. So which is it, Zuck?

 

[syklee26]

Of course the ultra slow and uber conservative Tim Cook and Apple will continue to lose top talents. I am not asking them to use cash unconscionably, but what da hell are they doing with almost 200 BILLION at disposal?

Trust me, I hate Zuck the fake Mixed Martial Artist with passion, but he runs his business with sense of urgency. Tim has never shown he is willing to take real risk.

Yet another reason Apple needs to replace Tim with someone far more aggressive.

 

[Donkey Man]

Oust Tim Spindler, oust Eduardo Cue, oust the fancy hairdo guy, rehire Avie Tevanian, stop working on AI, stop working on the AVP, stop working on half-assed services and focus on what you do best, i.e., Macs, iPhones and iPads.

 

[t0rqx]

There must be something with either the culture or infrastructure at Apple to be so profitable, have so much cash on hand, and yet they continue to bleed talent. Not to mention their AI and virtual assistant being ever behind the competition.

The company is now run by marketing and the financial department. Pennies are literally important for them. The financial department even rejected Apple's AI department buying an additional 50.000 AI chips and told them to use Amazon servers instead.

 

[Siggo]

Even the rats are leaving the sinking ship.

Btw, this guy made a very objective and deep analysis about Apple‘s problems of the last years:

Tldr, if even an absolute iSheep takes such an effort to make that video the situation in Cupertino must be WAY WORSW than just ‚pretty bad‘.

@t0rqx ^This. Instead of „products made for customers“ it’s now since Job‘s gone „products made for shareholders“

 

[amaze1499]

No investment was ever executed without projecting a roi.

 

[John_san]

Of course the ultra slow and uber conservative Tim Cook and Apple will continue to lose top talents. I am not asking them to use cash unconscionably, but what da hell are they doing with almost 200 BILLION at disposal?

Trust me, I hate Zuck the fake Mixed Martial Artist with passion, but he runs his business with sense of urgency. Tim has never shown he is willing to take real risk.

Yet another reason Apple needs to replace Tim with someone far more aggressive.

Right because breaking stuff to « disrupt » has proven to be such a valid business model.

« Let’s worry about the consequences of our actions after we are done counting our billions » doesn’t fly too well with the parents of the kids lost to Instagram, SnapChat and other crap from Meta.

I’m very happy with the slower approach by Apple if this can prevent avoidable incidents.

 

[John_san]

There must be something with either the culture or infrastructure at Apple to be so profitable, have so much cash on hand, and yet they continue to bleed talent. Not to mention their AI and virtual assistant being ever behind the competition.

All those talents and super smart people gathered under the same roof and working for an egomaniac can only be beneficial for Humanity. Hallelujah !

 

[breather]

Zuckerberg wanna create AI bots, a metaverse and other useless bullcrap with all this talent his poaching.

What a waste.

 

[TechRunner]

As others have stated over the past few months, it continues to amaze me that a company with such deep pockets and brand cachet can be faltering so badly in this area. They could have brought in the brightest minds and been near or at the top of the development of these tools.

 

[rymc02]

There must be something with either the culture or infrastructure at Apple to be so profitable, have so much cash on hand, and yet they continue to bleed talent. Not to mention their AI and virtual assistant being ever behind the competition.

Apple is finance company first, product second company under Tim Cook. In 2023 their AI engineers wanted to buy $10B worth of GPUs to replace their 5 year old chips but were shut down and told to work with what they got and rely on Amazon and Google servers. That same year they did $70B in stock buy backs.

 

[TracerAnalog]

I hope this isn't the timeline where Zuckerberg ends up being the one developing Skynet...

 

[chfilm]

Even the rats are leaving the sinking ship.

Btw, this guy made a very objective and deep analysis about Apple‘s problems of the last years:

Tldr, if even an absolute iSheep takes such an effort to make that video the situation in Cupertino must be WAY WORSW than just ‚pretty bad‘.

@t0rqx ^This. Instead of „products made for customers“ it’s now since Job‘s gone „products made for shareholders“

sad but true. As someone deeply invested in the apple ecosystem this is all really worrying! You can feel it day to day now in the little things- for many many years I absolutely use Safari exclusively on my mac- but lately- for all the gen AI Video websites you NEED to use chrome, otherwise they wont work. And don't get me started about running comfy ui or any video models locally. Apple used to be what you had to buy as a media industry creative (besides 3d work). But right now they're really falling behind - to be honest this year is the very first year I even started to quietly consider a Google phone because of the live translation feature and of course all the other ai stuff. It's frustrating. DO SOMETHING Apple!

 

[darkpaw]

Does it matter that Meta is poaching AI staff from Apple? Who wants to use Meta's creepy AI stuff anyway? Wasn't there just a report about their chatbot having 'intimate chats' with children? Creepy AF. No thanks.

I ditched Facebook/Meta stuff more than a decade ago. Don't miss it. You won't miss it either, but it will put a dent in Zuck's wallet when we all wake up and ditch his soulless rotten crud.

 

[Happy_John]

There must be something with either the culture or infrastructure at Apple to be so profitable, have so much cash on hand, and yet they continue to bleed talent. Not to mention their AI and virtual assistant being ever behind the competition.

At this point I'd believe that Apple actively wants to "bleed" AI talent and resources - AI isn't profitable as yet (except for chipmaker NVIDIA, who are selling GPUs, not models or services), and the shareholder obsession with AI is probably past its peak, so it wouldn't surprise me if Apple is more than happy to reduce costs and investments into something that is a bubble about to burst.

To get more financial information: this guy is worth a read / listen - https://www.betteroffline.com/ The general angle here is that the smartest thing to do is invest as little into AI as possible, because financially it's a black hole without any real return on investment. AI gets a hell of a lot of investment funding, but generates very little revenue, not nearly enough revenue to justify the investment. And lot of of the investment is being burnt up on running costs, not on creating any infrastructure. As it is now (who knows what will happen the future), companies based on offering AI-driven services are loss-making and financially unsustainable.

 

[Boeingfan]

Apple just needs to buy Facebook, eh, Meta, and they're all Apple employees again.

 

[Happy_John]

.

 

[Lone Deranger]

And the hits just keep on coming.

 

[JamesMay82]

I think SIRI is dreadful and I find it hit and miss with basics like call my wife or play a certain song so I rarely use it.

It's a shame to read they aren't spending on AI. I think CHATGPT is great and it would be nice for them to buy into something like that to give them an instant leg up.

That said I'm maybe a bit old fashioned but I like keeping AI within the separate app I don't think I feel comfortable with it being system wide.

 

[StoneJack]

That's great news !

 

[berrymetal]

Sure meta, people are still sticking to GPT

 

[gvanvoor]

If I were apple I'ld be more worried about developers, who do the actual coding, leaving than executives.

 

[ForkHandles]

A salary of 200 million is a sure fire sign of a bubble that’s about to burst.

Watch this space.


Boooooommmm