Apple faces big challenges in its artificial intelligence efforts as another key researcher leaves the company to join Meta’s ambitious superintelligence project, according to a new report Tuesday. The departure marks the fourth AI expert to leave Apple’s foundation models team in just one month, raising questions about the future of Apple Intelligence and the company’s AI strategy.
Apple loses fourth AI researcher in a month to Meta
Bowen Zhang, a crucial multimodal AI researcher who worked on Apple’s foundation models group (AFM), departed the company on Friday to join Meta’s recently established superintelligence team, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported. Zhang helped develop the core technology that powers Apple Intelligence, the AI platform that launched last year across iPhone, iPad and Mac devices. His departure follows others, which started with Ruoming Pang.
The AFM team, consisting of several dozen engineers and researchers split between Apple’s Cupertino headquarters and New York offices, has been the backbone of Apple’s AI ambitions. However, the group is now facing an exodus of talent that threatens to derail the company’s AI progress.
Meta’s aggressive talent acquisition
Meta has been particularly aggressive in poaching Apple’s AI talent. Meta offers compensation packages that far exceed what Apple provides. The social media giant previously recruited Pang, who led Apple’s foundation models team, with a package valued at more than $200 million. Two other researchers, Tom Gunter and Mark Lee, have also recently made the jump to Meta.
In response to these departures, Apple has begun increasing salaries for its remaining AFM staff members, regardless of whether they’ve threatened to leave. However, sources indicate that these pay increases still fall short of what competitors are offering, making it difficult to retain top talent.
Uncertainty clouds Apple’s AI future
The departure of key personnel has created significant uncertainty within Apple’s AI division, the report noted. Pang, in particular, played a central role in defining the team’s research direction and roadmap. With his departure, multiple team members report that the future direction of the AFM group is unclear, and additional engineers are actively seeking opportunities elsewhere.
Adding to the turmoil, Apple executives are reportedly considering a major strategic shift that could involve relying more heavily on third-party AI models rather than continuing to develop everything in-house. This potential change in direction has created unease among the remaining team members and contributed to low morale.
Siri’s future in question
Perhaps most significantly for Apple users, the company is exploring the possibility of powering a new version of Siri using external AI models from companies like OpenAI or Anthropic, rather than relying solely on Apple’s own technology. This represents a potential reversal of Apple’s traditional approach of developing critical technologies internally.
The company is simultaneously working on competing versions of Siri — one powered by external models and another based on new AFM models. While no final decision has been made, the mere consideration of outsourcing this core technology has created additional uncertainty within the AI team.
Privacy constraints limit capabilities
Apple’s commitment to user privacy, while valued by customers, has created technical limitations that make it harder to compete with rivals. The company’s preference for processing AI tasks on-device rather than in the cloud means that Apple Intelligence operates with significantly less computational power than competitors’ systems.
Apple Intelligence primarily uses an on-device model with 3 billion parameters, while competitors offer cloud-based systems with over a trillion parameters. Although Apple does have its own cloud model, it operates at around 150 billion parameters — still far below industry leaders.
Leadership seeks to reassure remaining team
Apple executives, including AI chief John Giannandrea and Craig Federighi, have attempted to reassure the remaining AFM team members that their work remains crucial to the company’s AI strategy. They’ve emphasized Apple’s commitment to in-house model development, drawing parallels to the company’s successful transition to designing its own chips.
However, the ongoing departures and strategic uncertainty suggest that Apple faces significant challenges in retaining talent and maintaining its competitive position in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. For Apple users, these developments could impact the pace of improvements to Apple Intelligence and other AI-powered features across the company’s product lineup.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
