Apple AI sees talent hemorrhage as Meta poaches 4th researcher in a month

Apple has lost another AI researcher to Meta, marking the fourth departure from its foundation models team in just one month. The exodus comes as Apple weighs a potential pivot to using third-party AI models instead of its own internally developed technology, raising questions about the company’s ability to compete in the AI race.

What you should know: Meta has systematically poached Apple’s AI talent, targeting the company’s most critical research division.
• Bowen Zhang, a key multimodal AI researcher at Apple, left the company on Friday to join Meta’s newly formed “Superintelligence” team.
• Zhang was part of Apple’s foundation models group (AFM), which built the core technology behind Apple Intelligence.
• This follows three other high-profile departures to Meta in recent weeks, including Apple’s former head of foundation models.

The big picture: Apple’s AI strategy appears to be in flux as the company struggles with both talent retention and strategic direction.
• Apple “has been marginally increasing the pay of its AFM staffers,” but the new compensation levels still “pale in comparison with those of rivals,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
• The company is simultaneously exploring a major pivot away from its own AI models for future Siri upgrades and other Apple Intelligence features.

Why this matters: The talent drain threatens Apple’s ability to develop competitive AI technology in-house at a time when AI capabilities are becoming central to tech products and services.
• Apple’s exploration of third-party solutions like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude models has “triggered unease within AFM,” suggesting internal concerns about the company’s commitment to homegrown AI development.
• The company is working on competing versions of Siri—one powered by external models and another based on new AFM technology—but hasn’t made a final decision on which direction to pursue.

What’s at stake: Apple’s long-term competitiveness in AI hinges on resolving these strategic and personnel challenges before more critical talent defects to rivals like Meta, Google, and OpenAI.