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Apple Loses Robotics AI Researcher to Meta

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Apple's lead artificial intelligence researcher for robotics is leaving the company for Meta, reports Bloomberg. Jian Zhang joined the Meta Robotics Studio on Tuesday.

Apple-Robot-Emoji-Feature.jpg

Three additional AI researchers are also leaving Apple's Foundation Models AI team for OpenAI and Anthropic, continuing an exodus that began in July. At least a dozen AI experts have left Apple for Meta, OpenAI, and other companies since January.

Meta has been offering AI engineers massive pay packages that other AI companies are not able to compete with. Meta was able to lure Apple's Foundational Models team lead Ruoming Pang with a $200 million pay package. Zhang was developing automation technology and exploring the role of AI in tech products, but his team was separate from the group that is working on creating a robot virtual companion.

According to a recent report from Financial Times, industry recruiters see the mass departures from Apple as a "crisis of confidence" around the company's AI future. Apple is continuing to work on a smarter LLM version of Siri that's expected to debut next year, but it had a serious misstep with the delayed Apple Intelligence version of Siri that failed to make it into iOS 18.

In an employee meeting in August, software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that Apple has successfully developed a second-generation Siri architecture that will bring major improvements to Siri in 2026.

Apple is considering a third-party solution to power Siri's AI capabilities, and has reportedly held discussions with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. A final decision hasn't been made as of yet, but Apple's wavering has caused tension within its LLM team. Additional AI team members are said to be actively interviewing for jobs at other companies.

Article Link: Apple Loses Robotics AI Researcher to Meta
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/02/apple-ai-robotics-researcher-joins-meta/
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Reactions: antiprotest
It's never good to lose talent, but Meta seems to be a revolving door itself. Talent they've recently acquired has already quit, according to Wired reporting cited in the same Gurman piece.

"It hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing for Meta, though. Several of the recently hired AI researchers have already quit, according to Wired"
 
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Reactions: BeagleLegal, michaelnugent, KeithBN and 4 others
Obviously Meta’s spending spree is not sustainable, but it definitely reflects poorly on the morale of Apple’s AI division that so many of its employees are jumping ship for other firms. Even setting aside the monetary aspect, it suggests their talents aren’t being put to good use inside Apple.

AI is one of those things like the internet was during the nineties, where it’s both transformational and overhyped. It’s here to stay but there’s also a bubble that’s gonna burst in an ugly way.
 
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Reactions: NoGood@Usernames, AngstyKylo, nordic_forest and 8 others
hieranonymous said:
Obviously Meta’s spending spree is not sustainable, but it definitely reflects poorly on the morale of Apple’s AI division that so many of its employees are jumping ship for other firms. Even setting aside the monetary aspect, it suggests their talents aren’t being put to good use inside Apple.

AI is one of those things like the internet was during the nineties, where it’s both transformational and overhyped. It’s here to stay but there’s also a bubble that’s gonna burst in an ugly way.
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It might not even have to do with morale. If a competitor is offering you two to three times your current salary, most people are going to jump ship. Even if it doesn't work out at Meta, they'll likely be scooped up by someone else shortly thereafter. It's a seller's market when it comes to AI talent.
 
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hieranonymous said:
Obviously Meta’s spending spree is not sustainable, but it definitely reflects poorly on the morale of Apple’s AI division that so many of its employees are jumping ship for other firms. Even setting aside the monetary aspect, it suggests their talents aren’t being put to good use inside Apple.

AI is one of those things like the internet was during the nineties, where it’s both transformational and overhyped. It’s here to stay but there’s also a bubble that’s gonna burst in an ugly way.
Click to expand...

Or it’s an indication that the AI bubble is going to burst, and people are cashing in and dashing out while they can.

Apple, on their side, might be delaying Apple Intelligence features because they’re no longer going to make AI a priority, because it doesn’t bring any significant return in investment.

Eventually, Apple will release the Apple Intelligence features they already promised, because they’ve painted themselves into a corner, but @bg AI development will be postponed until either no one cares any mire, and they can shove the whole concept down the back of the sofa, or they’ll by an exist AI service developer for cents on the dollar after share prices collapse.

The only company so far to make any return on AI is Nvidia, and that’s because they’re selling chips.

All other AI companies are burning through billions and are using investment funding to pay for running costs.

There’s been round after round if investment, but revenue figures are …. Not good.

It’s unsustainable. Given that, Apple is probably more than happy to have AI-focused staff be poached by meta.

Let meta deal with the money pit.
 
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iZac said:
At this rate Apple will give up their own AI ambitions and either power Siri etc with Google Gemini or buy Perplexity.
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If they have any sense they’ll wait for the bubble to burst and the company valuations to go through the floor.

Apple Intelligence is already late, and Apple are clearly pushing the “It’ll be ready when it’s ready, and not before” , so they’re in no hurry.

I have a suspicion that Apple are barely able to keep the smiles off their faces over these Meta staff poaches.
 
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MacUserFella said:
At this point, I’m convinced Meta is offering Apple execs cr*ck or something
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Maybe they are realizing Apple initiatives aren't going anywhere due to their privacy policies or lack of breakthrough innovations and lack of support from top executives so they are taking the money while also doing more in another company.
 
antiprotest said:
It makes no difference. He wasn't doing anything at Apple anyway.
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actually, i think you may have hit upon something.

i am beginning to see a pattern in who is reported/rumored to be leaving apple.
i think apple is for sure taking an assessment of how much these engineers are contributing to creation of an apple developed AI, and maybe judging that its best to just let these people go.
 
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Reactions: artifex, KeithBN and Happy_John
This is not a good sign. Apple needs to do better to try and retain their staff and utilize them for the task ahead. Even though, most of the people leaving is due to higher pay, utilize their skills, or both.
 
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