Report: Apple Losing Talent to OpenAI

[MacRumors]

Apple is losing employees to OpenAI as work on the company's first hardware products ramps up, The Information reports.

OpenAI has purportedly talked to suppliers about products that resemble a smart speaker without a display, as well as glasses, a digital voice recorder, and a wearable pin. The company is targeting late 2026 or early 2027 for the release of its first device.

OpenAI has succeeded in luring Apple employees away with lucrative compensation packages, and promises of less bureaucracy and more collaboration. It has offered stock grants that can exceed $1 million.

This year alone, OpenAI has recruited more than two dozen employees from Apple who worked on hardware, up from 10 last year. Those recruits worked on Apple's user interfaces, wearables, camera, and audio technology.

One recruit, Cyrus Daniel Irani, worked for Apple for 15 years and designed Siri's multicolored waveform introduced with the iPhone 6S. Another, Erik de Jong, was a senior executive working on Apple Watch hardware.

Interestingly, OpenAI has seen an "influx" of Apple employees reaching out independently to enquire about working there. There is particular enthusiasm to work with other former Apple employees like Jony Ive and Tang Tan, who are promising to re-create how industrial designers and hardware teams used to work together on bolder products at Apple.

Some Apple employees have reportedly been frustrated with only "incremental changes" to the products they work on and bureaucracy. Some have also been discontented at Apple's lackluster stock gains over the past year.

The report claims that Apple seems to be startled at the bleed of talented employees toward OpenAI. Last month, the company abruptly canceled an offsite meeting in China for its American and Chinese manufacturing and supply chain teams because Apple executives were worried that the meeting would keep too many people away from Cupertino for too long at a time when they needed to prevent further defections to OpenAI.

Moreover, Luxshare, the Chinese assembler of iPhones and AirPods, has been contracted to assemble at least one of OpenAI's upcoming devices. OpenAI has also apparently approached Goertek, which assembles AirPods, HomePods and Apple Watches, to supply components such as speakers.

Article Link: Report: Apple Losing Talent to OpenAI

 

[ApplePie95]

The « talents » we are talking about - are they the « talents » who made Intelligence so… intelligent ?

Or maybe those who made Siri so amazing ?

Or even those who chose to quit apple for Meta with the great fails we saw during their conference ?

 

[ry-guy]

Siri and Apple Watch hardware have moved nowhere in the last 5 years, so i don’t think those employees will be missed

 

[turbineseaplane]

Go get that bag boys & girls!

 

[ronrather]

Incremental Tim looked really old in the last keynote. He's getting tired re-painting Steve's old toys, and we're getting tired of buying them. Apple needs someone who is ready to make big leaps, not slow and steady creeps.

 

[Frign]

The AI bubble will collapse in a few years, maybe sooner. LLMs/GPTs are overhyped for what they offer, and if you follow the research consensus is building that for any further advances towards AGI we need a new fundamental technology shift that might take many years to be discovered.

Without question AI will be part of our lives in the future, but like the dotcom-bubble, things can become severely overvalued.

For Apple, maybe they're lucky that they are 'behind'.

 

[delsoul]

Apple has a culture about them that they love to overwork and underpay, could be a prime reason. Also, people they want to work on AI with their career aren’t really getting the opportunity with “Apple intelligence” it seems.
Better pay, better work life balance, and working in your dream project all seem like reasons to leave Apple for the competition

 

[MicahB]

Jony Ive should be the CEO of Apple as far as I am concerned. Apple should buy OpenAI and set him up to become the eventual CEO. He is the one who embodied the magic of Jobs. There are a lot of smart people who can do Operations like what Cook has done, but there are very few people who can create unique products and designs like Ive. It would be a bit like a Jobs 2.0 story to have him come back via OpenAI just like Jobs came back from the acquisition of Next.

 

[q64ceo]

Apple should focus more on its core product line. If they want AI, they should contract it out to a third-party company, one which focuses exclusively on AI products.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Jony Ive should be the CEO of Apple as far as I am concerned. Apple should buy OpenAI and set him up to become the eventual CEO. He is the one who embodied the magic of Jobs. There are a lot of smart people who can do Operations like what Cook has done, but there are very few people who can create unique products and designs like Ive. It would be a bit like a Jobs 2.0 story to have him come back via OpenAI just like Jobs came back from the acquisition of Next.

Johnny Ive is responsible for the butterfly keyboards and subtraction of ports. He needs to be paired with someone like Jobs, that will use Ive's talent, but cut him off when things start getting stupid. He is WAY too high on his own supply to be at the top.

...and if they bought OpenAI, Altman would come along, and he is a charlatan. In short, no thank you.

 

[Sami13496]

When are we going to see that device Jony and Sam are working on?

https://openai.com/sam-and-jony/

Edit. I’m sorry, I meant Sam and Jony

 

[titanium69]

apple sells overpriced overrated tech to teens following celebs into minefields & ppl who dont know the diff between cellular data & wifi.

Whenever apple did anything else it’s been a disaster.

 

[citysnaps]

There should be no worries. Almost everyone here has vociferously said they'll immediately turn AI off as soon as it's on their phone.

 

[msz95]

Jony Ive should be the CEO of Apple as far as I am concerned. Apple should buy OpenAI and set him up to become the eventual CEO. He is the one who embodied the magic of Jobs. There are a lot of smart people who can do Operations like what Cook has done, but there are very few people who can create unique products and designs like Ive. It would be a bit like a Jobs 2.0 story to have him come back via OpenAI just like Jobs came back from the acquisition of Next.

I thought about this for years. I need Jony Ive back and change Apple

 

[WarmWinterHat]

The « talents » we are talking about - are they the « talents » who made Intelligence so… intelligent ?

Or maybe those who made Siri so amazing ?

Or even those who chose to quit apple for Meta with the great fails we saw during their conference ?

It sounds like many of them are from Apple's hardware team, so they wouldn't be connected to Siri and Apple Intelligence at all.

Either way, from what I've read, Siri has been hamstrung from the top, so the software people can't move forward with what they want to do because the c-suite isn't playing along.

 

[Macalway]

The AI bubble will collapse in a few years, maybe sooner. LLMs/GPTs are overhyped for what they offer, and if you follow the research consensus is building that for any further advances towards AGI we need a new fundamental technology shift that might take many years to be discovered.

Without question AI will be part of our lives in the future, but like the dotcom-bubble, things can become severely overvalued.

For Apple, maybe they're lucky that they are 'behind'.

Over hyped and a bubble, almost certainly, but no one can predict the future.

Regardless, this all seems like a mass exodus from a sinking ship, which of course is absurd. Maybe when said bubble bursts, Apple can pick up the unemployed pieces.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I guess my question is, in terms of hardware… How is this any different than what’s been described as being worked on within Apple?
Screenless smart speaker, glasses, audio recording device?
Even putting apple aside for a second, this doesn’t really sound that different from anything that Amazon, Google or Meta are doing.
Every tech company is working on smart speakers and pushing towards glasses, what makes this company stand out in the sea?

 

[Wx_Man]

Here’s the proper headline…

“Who Is Apple NOT Losing AI Talent To?”

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Incremental Tim looked really old in the last keynote. He's getting tired re-painting Steve's old toys, and we're getting tired of buying them. Apple needs someone who is ready to make big leaps, not slow and steady creeps.

Not that age really matters when it comes to technological innovation, but Johnny Ive isn’t that far behind Tim in age.

 

[contacos]

The « talents » we are talking about - are they the « talents » who made Intelligence so… intelligent ?

Or maybe those who made Siri so amazing ?

Or even those who chose to quit apple for Meta with the great fails we saw during their conference ?

Did you even read? It's mainly about hardware not software

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Part of their new job will be to ensure that whatever they do will be available on iPhones, so…

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Not that age really matters when it comes to technological innovation, but Johnny Ive isn’t that far behind Tim in age.

Ive doesn't look terribly healthy and spry either.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Interestingly, OpenAI has seen an "influx" of Apple employees reaching out independently to enquire about working there. There is particular enthusiasm to work with other former Apple employees like Jony Ive and Tang Tan, who are promising to re-create how industrial designers and hardware teams used to work together on bolder products at Apple.

Take the UX designers, too. I think OpenAI could use a shot of Liquid Ass.

 

[cjsuk]

They’ll be crawling back to Apple when the lay offs happen. Whether or not there is a job left will be the find out part of that approach.

 

[e-coli]

Letting Siri rot on the vine and poison the brand perception was a colossal blunder.

Of course AI talent isn’t clamoring to work on that mess.