Apple's Real AI Crisis Isn't Siri, But the Talent It's Losing to Rivals

[MacRumors]

Apple has hemorrhaged around a dozen artificial intelligence staff to rivals since January, making it one of the prime victims in Silicon Valley's fierce AI talent war, reports the Financial Times.

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. The most notable recent departure was that of 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.

Key departures from Apple's AI team this year include:

• Brandon McKinzie (OpenAI)
• Dian Ang Yap (OpenAI)
• Liutong Zhou (Cohere)
• Ruoming Pang (Meta)
• Mark Lee (Meta)
• Tom Gunter (Meta)
• Bowen Zhang (Meta)
• Shuang Ma (Meta)
• Floris Weers (stealth startup)

Several of the individuals who have left were contributors to research papers on AI models that Apple released last year. Apple's core Foundation Models team is made up of just 50 to 60 people, so each departure is particularly damaging for the company.

FT reports that industry recruiters see the departures as "a crisis of confidence" around Apple's AI future. Aaron Sines from recruiting firm Razoroo said companies now view elite AI talent as "strategic assets," on par with intellectual property or even entire business units.

"There are really only a thousand, maybe two thousand people in the world who have real foundational model experience and what it takes to develop and deploy foundational models," he told the newspaper.

The talent drain coincides with Apple's struggle to update Siri by integrating large language models (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 has reportedly established AI offices in Zurich, where teams are developing a completely new software architecture for Siri. This new approach – called a "monolithic model" – is built entirely on an LLM engine. It's designed to replace Siri's existing "hybrid" system, which has become fragmented over the years as different features were added in layers. The new architecture aims to make Siri more conversational and significantly better at understanding and synthesizing information.

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. The new capabilities will include better understanding of a user's personal context, on-screen awareness, and deeper per-app controls.

Article Link: Apple's Real AI Crisis Isn't Siri, But the Talent It's Losing to Rivals

 

[Macboy51]

Did you guys get permission from these people to post their names? Seems a bit of an invasion of privacy.

 

[rappr]

Presumably Apple has been hiring new talent as people leave, right? That is generally how the world works.

 

[giggles]

Nobody is indispensable and we don't know how much of this "stardom" aura around some AI researchers is a byproduct of the AI mania.

 

[q64ceo]

Money is a very powerful pull factor. But I wonder just how many people in the AI division feel stifled by management and if that is the case it is a push factor for them. They've got some real talent over there. So why haven't they been able to execute this the right way?

 

[555gallardo]

Did you guys get permission from these people to post their names? Seems a bit of an invasion of privacy.

Not much of a privacy invasion if it’s been available on LinkedIn.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Money is a very powerful pull factor. But I wonder just how many people in the AI division feel stifled by management and if that is the case it is a push factor for them. They've got some real talent over there. So why haven't they been able to execute this the right way?

What is the right way? How AI tools are currently being implemented? I’m a huge proponent of AI tools but I think it’s too early to know what the right way is with and for them.

 

[racerhomie]

Yeah, the industry is taking away all the talents with money. I just hope Apple allows other LLMs to integrate privately with the iPhone. More like the search engine options on Safari.

I am okay with OpenAI, but the globe needs more options as time goes on

 

[SAIRUS]

Honestly the problem is the lack of vision on it and a direction. That is why people are leaving.

 

[nfl46]

The good thing is, Apple has time to make their version of AI. We will be dealing with AI for decades and at this point, no one has figured it out. It's been a bunch of gimmicks and cute little features.

 

[wanha]

On the surface of it, I tend to agree with the "crisis of confidence" conclusion. Apple has been fumbling on AI quite a bit now and I would not be surprised to learn if many initiatives at the company have been abruptly cancelled in the middle of the constant lack of clear vision.

That said, I'm glad to hear Apple is building a brand new LLM based infrastructure for Apple Intelligence, it's clearly the way to go.

Too bad they didn't get started on it years ago.

 

[neotint]

Flip side, people who left are clearly okay with the values of Facebook and OpenAI which are largely or overtly anti-Apple values, so this helps focus Apple's AI potential to do something truly "different" like not relying on stochastic parrot LLMs and instead come up with something truly in alignment to Apple's brand and core values. Wiser ways are possible. The world doesn't need more AI slop with an Apple logo behind it!

 

[GrumpyOldGuy52]

Did you guys get permission from these people to post their names? Seems a bit of an invasion of privacy.

All are easily found in press releases, trade press articles, LinkedIn, etc.—we're talking public figures within the industry, not low-level staffers. There's no invasion of privacy here.

 

[Klpp0]

Apple will continue making colorful glass icons and new emojis/momojis.

No need to hurry with the personal assistant and AI.
It didn‘t fully work for 10 years, so let’s just wait for a few more.

In the meantime, due to the partnership with OpenAi, just pass your private documents and screenshots to the competition (“Pls Siri ask ChatGpt about the current month”)

 

[GrumpyOldGuy52]

Presumably Apple has been hiring new talent as people leave, right? That is generally how the world works.

As the article says, there are only 1,000-2,000 people across the world that can currently do the work those individuals do. That's not a large pool to pull from. Sure, you can throw money at them, but then another company will just come along and throw even more money at them—there needs to be a direction and a vision to help keep talent. Otherwise, all you do is swap mercenaries every year or two for ever more money.

 

[mike090910]

Sorry, the whole process is not going well for Apple, so are they really losing talent or just dead weight?

 

[TracerAnalog]

The good thing is, Apple has time to make their version of AI. We will be dealing with AI for decades and at this point, no one has figured it out. It's been a bunch of gimmicks and cute little features.

I couldn't agree more. I even think we're in the hype phase, with real significant impact in a few years. Also: real general AI is still not here.

 

[Falco McGregor]

Apple should 100% control the core technologies that power its ecosystem. But we are fast-approaching the commodification of a lot of these LLMs. Licensing deals between Apple and some of the major players makes sense in the short-term while Apple continues to build out their in-house models. This appears to be where Apple is headed, with perhaps a medium-sized acquisition thrown into the mix.

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

Artificial intelligence is an abomination in general.

 

[djc6]

The good thing is, Apple has time to make their version of AI. We will be dealing with AI for decades and at this point, no one has figured it out. It's been a bunch of gimmicks and cute little features.

Whatever AI is, its leaps and bounds ahead of Siri's ability to interpret human language. Apple has had thirteen years to work on Siri and it still can't answer simple questions. It's always doing web searches "here is what I found on the web" and making you sift through the results. Unfortunately, you can't do that while driving, it will say "I'm sorry I can't do that while you are in the car" - which is the only time I need to use Siri !

Siri is awesome at transcribing human languauge, but its nowhere near chatbot levels of interpretation.

I recall recently driving through the midwest and I wasn't sure if I was in eastern or central time yet. So I asked siri what time zone am I located in, and it just regurgitated the dictionary definition of a time zone. So helpful!

 

[Corefile]

I don't want to work for Facebook.

 

[dschmitty-o]

The people responsible for the disaster that is Apple Intelligence are leaving? How terrible!

 

[DrJR]

I’m still not sure if this is deliberate…. The tide will turn where privacy will be more importance than AI. Privacy is their selling point right now, let alone in 5 years. If you want to compromise your security there will be ample apps to help. It doesn’t need baked in

 

[senttoschool]

The good thing is, Apple has time to make their version of AI. We will be dealing with AI for decades and at this point, no one has figured it out. It's been a bunch of gimmicks and cute little features.

I couldn't agree more. I even think we're in the hype phase, with real significant impact in a few years. Also: real general AI is still not here.

Spot the boomers or blue collar workers.

LLMs are insanely useful in my profession.

Anyone who still thinks LLMs are a gimmick or cute little features must be absolutely insane.

 

[AppleSOS]

Oh no, whatever will they do without Shuang Ma?

AI on phones is a gimmick that people don't use. The useful "AI" bits for a phone have been in there for a long time already. No one cares about image generation or chatbots directly on their phone. They'll download an app or go to a website for it. It is used as a selling point, but no one really cares about it in practice yet.