Terrible comparison. META is closer to a poisonous junk food manufacturer that flavors its products with lead and arsenic , than to an Italian chef in Venice.
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Apple Loses Key AI Executive to Meta's Multimillion-Dollar Hiring Spree
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Exactly my thoughts. I think Apple didn't lose anything.
It's so frustrating that Apple is forcing itself to develop AI and that they'll fall behind if they don't, because I don't want it. If Apple kept AI slop off iPhones, I'd find that an incredibly attractive product (currently, I'm toying with getting a new Samsung Galaxy phone next time round since iPhone hardware is so far behind...).
I get the feeling that Tim feels the same way about AI that I do and would rather not bother with it.
I get the feeling that Tim feels the same way about AI that I do and would rather not bother with it.
Seems bad, but i don't think the IA hype is going to a good place.
Everything seems to explode at some point, including these astronomical salaries.
Apple only needs to focus on offering the best product on the market with the best user experience, and rely on the best IA on the market
Everything seems to explode at some point, including these astronomical salaries.
Apple only needs to focus on offering the best product on the market with the best user experience, and rely on the best IA on the market
I'd do it for that salary. At least they're not actively funding AI used by the Israeli military like how Microsoft does.
This could be a blessing. Meta poaches all the best AI talent in the industry, fails to release anything because this is the same company that spent 100 billion on the Metaverse and couldn't even create legs.
Can only hope for the collapse of this AI bubble and for Zuck
Can only hope for the collapse of this AI bubble and for Zuck
How does this even happen? I ask because when I worked at a very low level tech job, I was constrained from taking a job at a competitor for at least a year after quitting my original job. How does this 'poaching' occur?
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been offering AI engineers massive pay packages to poach them from other companies, and a key Apple engineering manager has decided to take the deal, according to Bloomberg.
Ruoming Pang, who manages Apple's foundation models team, is moving from Apple to Meta. He was in charge of a team with approximately 100 employees that work on Apple's large language models. Models developed by Pang's team are used for Apple Intelligence features like email summaries, Priority Notifications, and Genmoji.
Meta lured Pang with a deal worth tens of millions of dollars per year. Meta has also scooped up AI experts from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Scale AI.
Rumors suggest that Apple has been considering relying on technology from Anthropic or OpenAI for a future LLM version of Siri, rather than using the models it has been working on. Those discussions have reportedly impacted the morale of the foundation models team that Pang is leaving. Other engineers on the team are also mulling offers from other companies.
Apple is struggling to catch up to competitors that have more advanced AI features, including Google and Samsung. Earlier this year, Apple delayed the Apple Intelligence Siri features that it had promised at WWDC 2024, and the delay led to a restructuring of its AI teams. Apple's AI efforts are now being overseen by Apple's software chief Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell, who led Vision Pro development.
Article Link: Apple Loses Key AI Executive to Meta's Multimillion-Dollar Hiring Spree
fwiw, Meta/Zuck is now partnering with Anduril, so on top of their horrid past, they're stepping their toes in defense contracting proper.
I mean, Apple is no saint either. They also have quite a history with supporting the government, loads of stories.
You'd think so - but all these companies have the ability to turn off sharing data for training.
I leave it on as i'm happy for the models to get better - so I can't see why Apple couldn't have the same opt in option for training data. They have it for Siri (though i'm not sure what help that has been)
I've thought the same thing--especially because I like what Anthropic is doing, and its values seem to align with Apple's values. The problem may be the cost of such a purchase may be an order of magnitude more than it is actually worth. Also, with any company, you are not just buying a product, but a product trajectory and its people. It might be that Apple explored this and realized that Anthropic's top talent are very much against being purchased. Who knows, though. Maybe Apple will buy Anthropic.
In managerial roles on cutting edge R&D those people are architects. This guy did not get a “distinguished engineer” title at Apple because he was great at managing Jira.
Agreed but if you’re offered some golden hand cuffs that give you a few million a year, who wouldn’t?
Especially if you believe that AI will start to cut into engineering jobs.
Why not hold your nose & take your golden parachute right now
Apple is hardly a saint with its App Store shenanigans, either. Nor is it a centre of AI excellence.
I suspect that apple has tried to purchase some hot start ups but it’s been rebuffed, as their engineers are
a) likely going to end up rich anyway and
b) don’t want to spend their most productive years in the golden age of ai at apple, which doesn’t have a clue.
I mean, the only worse big tech company to sell to atm would be Microsoft.
Agreed. With web searches and memory (of you) included now, they are getting very powerful.
I use ChatGPT and Gemini regularly and cross check their responses (if both give roughly the same answer, then it’s likely to be the correct one).
Without realising it, I find myself going on the web less and less to search for something.
Why spend 10 minutes looking at various pages and videos and trying to ascertain their veracity, when both chat bots will give me a response in seconds and I can cross check their answers.
On the other hand, I have mixed feelings about the inevitable decline of the web…
Tim Cook being meek toward this administration pales to inadvertently facilitating a genocide in Myanmar, harvesting and selling everyones data, and partnering with an AI defense contractor
On one hand, feels like yet another another fail on Tim Cook’s watch. Yet, on the other hand, aside from the money aspect…who in their right mind goes to work for mark and Facebook? Mark is who you go to work for when you have zero experience or you’re sending your career out to pasture.
Where would people publish if not on the web? Where will AI models get new information across the board about the outside world if not from the web? Maybe people will use the web less, but it might actually be a good thing if the incentives for web search advertising decrease.
If you get paid "tens of millions of dollars" you don't really need to worry about your career afterwards.
Going to work on AI at Meta isn't like signing up to be a paid Russian hitman.
I also can't stand Meta, but I think we should keep this all in perspective.
Just working there doesn't pin all of their corporate actions on you personally.
Well, if there was a future news story of some devastating effects by Meta AI that makes a Russian hitman look like a saint, I wouldn't be terribly shocked.
Do you blame everyone that works on Boeing planes for 737 MAX issues?
What about government military contractors that work on drone programs?
Are they on the hook for "murder" depending upon how the drones are used?
It's a real rabbit hole you are potentially going down here.