Meta’s money means another of Apple’s AI leaders just quit Cupertino
Meta’s money has tempted yet another Apple AI executive to quit the company to move to team Zuckerberg. It’s the latest exit from the company’s beleaguered team and means around a dozen members of the company’s Apple Foundation Models team have left this year, many to Meta.
In through the out door
The latest exit is noteworthy because Ke Yang, the executive concerned, only recently took over leadership of Apple’s Answers, Knowledge, and Information (AKI) team, which is working to improve Siri’s ability to grab ore information from the web to make it a better alternative to other AI search machines. Bloomberg also says more of Apple’s AI team members are expected to leave the company in the coming months.
Yang had led the search-focused parts of the AKI team prior to his recent promotion, which he received when the previous incumbent, Robby Walker, quit. Walker formerly reported to Apple’s AI chief, John Giannandrea, before that responsibility shifted to software chief Craig Federighi. Walker was previously expected to quit this month. Given the proximity of Yang’s departure this suggests problems emerged during the handover process, and even if that is not the case does leave a problem on-boarding any successor to the post.
Mood music for musical chairs
While these musical chairs are evidently problems for Apple, it is likely they hint at a mood of dissatisfaction across elements of Apple’s AI teams. That unhappiness likely reflects the public failure to ship the smarter Siri on time, may reflect discontent at some of the challenges of working at Apple.
Walker was on record responding to critics of the Siri team during an internal meeting saying: “We swam hundreds of miles — we set a Guinness Book for World Records for swimming distance — but we still didn’t swim to Hawaii,” he said. “And we were being jumped on, not for the amazing swimming that we did, but the fact that we didn’t get to the destination.”
Follow the money (some do)
All the internal frustrations on Apple’s AI team is almost certainly being amplified by the huge quantity of cash Meta is willing to spend on AI talent. To an extent that spend is justified as the company needs a competitive edge when attempting to introduce hardware in competition with a company possessing as much hardware design and manufacturing experience as Apple.
What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
Apple, meanwhile, needs a story teller somewhere on its bench capable of crafting an inspirational vision to rally what remains of its AI team – a leader capable of building a meaning beyond the tech, such as the need to ensure that the AI services that do dominate tomorrow’s world are private by design and placed in the service of humanity.
After all, what will happen if all the AI services are not private and are entirely focused on serving the needs of billionaires? To what extent can Apple’s AI form a barrier against such a dystopia? Though perhaps Apple’s AI teams already feel that kind of dreadful future is inevitable, given the lead other AI services already have.
All the same, the drama is real, and someone’s got to try to think different, haven’t they? If you can, you probably should.
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