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The leading executive at Apple Inc. responsible for artificial intelligence models is departing to join Meta Platforms Inc., marking another challenge for the smartphone company's ongoing AI initiatives.
Renowned engineer and team leader Ruoming Pang, who was responsible for Apple's foundational model initiatives, is leaving the company, as reported by sources familiar with the situation. Pang, who came to Apple from Alphabet Inc. in 2021, is now one of the latest high-profile additions to Meta's emerging superintelligence division, according to the individuals, who chose to remain anonymous when discussing unannounced staffing changes.
To gain control of Pang, Meta provided a yearly package valued in the tens of millions of dollars, according to sources. Meta's Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, has been actively recruiting, hiring prominent AI figures such as Alexandr Wang from Scale AI, startup founder Daniel Gross, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, all receiving substantial pay.
On Monday, Meta also recruited Yuanzhi Li, a researcher from OpenAI, and Anton Bakhtin, who previously worked on Claude at Anthropic PBC, according to individuals familiar with the situation. Last month, the company also brought on several other researchers from OpenAI.
Meta did not provide a statement. Apple, Pang, OpenAI, and Anthropic failed to respond to inquiries for comment.
At Meta, Zuckerberg has positioned AI as the company's primary focus as it strives to remain competitive with competitors such as OpenAI and Google. Zuckerberg has been deeply engaged in hiring for the company's AI department, inviting prospective employees to his residences in Silicon Valley and Lake Tahoe, and frequently contacting top candidates directly.
Mark Zuckerberg is hiring leading AI experts for Meta's emerging superintelligence department.
At the end of June, Zuckerberg reorganized the company's AI teams to concentrate more on "superintelligence," which refers to AI systems capable of performing tasks as effectively or more efficiently than humans. Meta has announced that it will invest tens of billions of dollars into AI initiatives this year, with a significant portion directed towards infrastructure such as data centers and chips.
At Apple, Pang led a team of approximately 100 individuals focused on the company's large language models, which form the foundation of Apple Intelligence and other AI capabilities across Apple's devices. In June, Apple revealed that these models would be made available to external developers for the first time, enabling a variety of new iPhone and iPad applications.
However, the foundation models team has faced increased scrutiny from new leadership, who are considering the use of third-party models, such as those from OpenAI or Anthropic, to enhance the next iteration of Siri. These internal conversations have negatively impacted the morale of the foundation models team, also referred to as AFM, in recent weeks.
Although the company has considered transitioning to a third-party solution to support the AI in the upcoming Siri, it has concurrently been developing a new version of Siri utilizing the models created by Pang's team. These models also enable Apple Intelligence features that operate on Apple devices, such as email and web article summaries, Genmoji, and Priority Notifications.
A major shift, the most notable in Apple's AI efforts since the company began developing Apple Intelligence several years back, highlights the increased competition for talent in this growing field. Meta has been offering top engineers around the world millions of dollars annually—substantially more than what the iPhone manufacturer provides its engineers for comparable work.
John Giannandrea, the senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy, and Craig Federighi, the senior vice president of software engineering at Apple.
Pang's exit might mark the beginning of a series of departures from the AFM group, as multiple engineers have informed colleagues that they intend to leave soon for Meta or other companies, according to the sources. Tom Gunter, a senior assistant to Pang, left Apple last month, as reported by Bloomberg at that time.
The team focused on foundation models is led by Daphne Luong, who serves as a key assistant to John Giannandrea, the senior vice president of AI. Earlier this year, Giannandrea faced internal setbacks, with several consumer-focused teams such as Siri, robotics, Core ML, and App Intents being removed from his oversight. This occurred following a weak reception of Apple Intelligence and ongoing delays in new Siri features, including the functionality to access user data for completing requests.
Following Pang's exit, the AFM team will now be led by Zhifeng Chen. This marks a shift from Pang's previous structure, where most engineers reported directly to him, as there will now be a new organizational setup featuring several managers who report to Chen, with engineers then reporting to these managers. Individuals familiar with the team suggest that Chong Wang, Zirui Wang, Chung-Cheng Chiu, and Guoli Yin may serve as potential managers in the updated structure.
Apple's broader AI approach is now primarily managed by Craig Federighi, the company's software engineering chief, and Mike Rockwell, who was involved in developing the Apple Vision Pro headset and currently oversees Siri's engineering. Meanwhile, Giannandrea is responsible for Apple's AI research division. During June's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple's internal AI received limited attention, with only minor appearances in new features such as call and text message translation.
Other AI features, such as analysis of on-device screenshots and enhanced image generation, were provided by partners, including OpenAI and Google. The company also released a new version of Xcode that offers code completion by utilizing Claude and ChatGPT.
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