Apple now also loses AI search chief – again to Meta
The Apple Intelligence team is losing a key employee for the umpteenth time. Now a man who was supposed to build an AI search engine for Apple is leaving.
Apple Intelligence icon in false colors: Departures from the team could even accelerate.
(Image: Apple / Bearbeitung heise medien)
It has meanwhile become a kind of running gag in Silicon Valley: Regularly announce employees from Apple's AI department and go to the competition. After it recently became known that an important Apple robotics researcher is moving to Meta, it is now affecting Apple Intelligence's search department. According to a Bloomberg News report, Ke Yang has resigned, who, piquantly, only became head of the AKI department “weeks ago,” which stands for “Answers, Knowledge, and Information.” In the AKI team of Apple Intelligence, Apple's AI search engine is likely to be developed, should it ever come—but the direct goal is to finally make Siri more capable for web search queries.
Back to Meta Platforms
Yang, like many of his former Apple colleagues, is going to Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, which operates a "Superintelligence" laboratory and is massively spending money. One of the AKI functions, "Answers," is intended to help make Apple competitive with ChatGPT's web integration, Perplexity, and Google's AI search function. Meanwhile, it looked as if Apple might lose its search deal with Google, worth at least 20 billion US dollars—therefore, a replacement was sought.
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Yang had only recently become a direct subordinate of Apple's now partially sidelined AI chief John Giannandrea. But that apparently didn't stop him from succumbing to Meta's temptations. AKI works with various other teams, including the AI and ML group (AIML) plus the Siri team, which reports directly to Apple's head of software, Craig Federighi.
“Many more” Apple Intelligence employees to leave?
Meanwhile, a good dozen Apple Intelligence experts have already set sail for other shores, including the chief scientist from Apple's foundational model department. According to the US media report, “many more” Apple employees could leave in the coming months.
This means that the company is still failing to stabilize its AI department. The AKI team is now to be led by Benoit Dupin, who is actually an expert in machine learning clouds. He, in turn, reports to John Giannandrea. Despite having had parts of the responsibility for Siri taken away, he is bravely continuing in his position.
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