Apple Inc., the U.S. tech company known for the iPhone and Siri voice assistant, has recently lost multiple key employees from its artificial intelligence (AI) and Siri teams. In the past few weeks, at least four AI researchers and one senior Siri executive have left the company, joining competitors such as Meta Platforms and Google DeepMind.
The four researchers who left include Yinfei Yang, Haoxuan You, Bailin Wang, and Zirui Wang. Yang has left Apple to start a new company, while You and Wang joined Meta to work on its AI projects. Zirui Wang is moving to Google DeepMind, which helps it to develop advanced AI models.
In addition to those researchers, a senior Siri executive, Stuart Bowers, has also left Apple and joined Google DeepMind. Bowers was one of the leaders working on Siri, Apple’s voice assistant software. He left at a time when Apple is getting ready to add new AI features to Siri.
These exists are part of a larger trend of talent leaving Apple’s AI team. In recent months, many AI experts and leaders have left Apple to join other tech companies. Many of these companies are known for their work in artificial intelligence. This shows how tough the competition has become, as companies like Meta, Google, OpenAI, and others are trying to hire skilled AI workers.
Analysts say that losing top AI researchers and executive can create challenges for Apple as it works to improve Siri and other AI projects. Apple has been changing its AI teams and adding new leaders, but these latest exits show that the company still faces difficulties in keeping its AI experts.
One reason for this change is that other technology companies often offer high salaries and more opportunities to AI experts. Companies like Meta and Google say they are working on future AI technologies and want to hire experienced researchers to build new systems and tools. Many AI workers think these offers are hard to refuse.
Apple’s Siri team has been under a lot of pressure because Siri has not performed as well as other AI assistants. Users and experts have said that Siri is behind its competitors, and some of Apple’s projects to improve its AI have been delayed. This situation might be one of the reasons that why staff are choosing to leave Apple.
Even with these exists, Apple is still working on new versions of Siri and its AI projects. Reports show that the Apple plans to release two major updates for Siri in the future. One update will make Siri more personal using advanced AI models, and the other will aim to turn Siri into a more conversational assistant, similar to systems like ChatGPT.
Apple’s AI team changes in the past year included new leaders. Earlier, AI chief John Giannandrea left his main role, and his work was given to other executives in the company. These changes were made to help Apple work faster on AI, but the latest people leaving show that the improvement is still hard.
The constant changing of staff highlights how important artificial intelligence work has become for the tech industry. Companies are trying their best to build powerful AI tools, from voice assistants to advanced language systems, and they want the best researchers to help build it.
Apple continues to report strong overall sales results, including high iPhone sales, but its AI projects is still very important for investors and users. It will show if the company can keep or hire the best AI workers while making Siri and other smart features better.