Showing themselves the door: Apple loses AI researchers to Meta, OpenAI amid talent crisis

Apple is hemorrhaging senior AI talent, with roughly a dozen researchers and engineers departing for rivals like Meta and OpenAI in recent months. The exodus has created what one AI recruiting firm describes as “a crisis of confidence” within Apple, signaling to competitors that the iPhone maker’s AI team is vulnerable to aggressive poaching efforts.

The big picture: Apple’s AI brain drain began with the departure of Ruoming Pang, who led the company’s foundation model team responsible for Apple Intelligence features like Genmoji and Priority Notifications.

• Pang joined Meta in July after managing Apple’s roughly 100-person AI team since 2021, when he arrived from Google.
• His exit has triggered a cascade of departures, with former colleagues Mark Lee and Tom Gunter following him to Meta’s Superintelligence Labs just days later.

Key departures: The talent flight extends beyond Meta, with OpenAI successfully recruiting two Apple foundation models research engineers.

• Brandon McKinzie and Dian Ang Yap both left Apple’s AI research division for OpenAI.
• The Financial Times reports that Apple has now lost around a dozen AI staff members, including several top researchers.

What they’re saying: Industry recruiters view Pang’s departure as a watershed moment that has emboldened competitors.

• “Ruoming Pang leaving is huge: it sends a signal of a crisis of confidence around what is to come,” said Aaron Sines, director of AI recruiting at Razoroo.
• “A lot of the companies we have as clients are saying ‘hey, look at Apple: it’s open season’.”

Why this matters: The departures threaten to become a self-fulfilling prophecy where Apple loses the very talent needed to compete in the AI race.

• If top researchers leave because they believe Apple is falling behind, the company loses critical expertise required to catch up with AI leaders.
• The Wall Street Journal reports that key AI players are all making net gains in engineers and researchers while Apple suffers losses.

Apple’s response: CEO Tim Cook recently held a company-wide meeting attempting to reassure remaining staff about Apple’s AI strategy and commitment to the field.