Apple loses lead robotics AI researcher to Meta in ongoing exodus
Poor response to Apple Intelligence and the company’s potential shift towards using third-party models contribute to worsening morale
The employee, Zhang Jian, joined the Meta Robotics Studio, the social media company confirmed on Tuesday. Separately, three more AI researchers are leaving Apple’s in-house large language models team, adding to the upheaval in that group, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The latest string of departures – all taking place over the last week – included John Peebles, Du Nan and Meng Zhao, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the moves had not been announced.
They were all part of an Apple Foundation Models team that has lost roughly 10 members, including its chief, in recent weeks. The group was central to the creation of the Apple Intelligence platform, launched last year as part of the company’s bid to catch up in AI.
Apple is now discussing internally whether to rely more on outside technology, rather than just home-grown models, Bloomberg News has reported.
Peebles and Du are heading to OpenAI, while Zhao is joining Anthropic. Many of their colleagues previously defected to Meta, which has enticed workers with staggering pay increases. Pang Ruoming, who ran Apple’s models team, left for a multi-year, US$200 million package.