Meta Just Poached Apple’s Head of AI Models

Among all the AI models available on smartphones these days, Apple Intelligence is lagging behind by a mile. It can’t seem to do some of the simplest of AI tasks, and a lot of promised features have yet to be delivered. Unfortunately, it isn’t going to be easier moving forwards. This is because, according to reports, Meta has managed to convince Apple’s head of AI models to jump ship.

Apple head of AI models jumps ship

According to a Bloomberg report, Meta has convinced Apple’s head of AI models, Ruoming Pang, to hop on board Meta’s AI train. Pang is expected to join Meta and be part of Mark Zuckerberg’s recently formed superintelligence unit.

At Apple, Pang led Apple’s in-house team that helped to train some of the AI models that power Apple Intelligence. It also doesn’t look like Meta is stopping at Apple. The report reveals that Meta hired Yuanzhi Li, a researcher at OpenAI. They also hired Anton Bakhtin, who worked on Anthropic’s Claude AI model.

Based on all this, it really sounds like Meta is going all out and poaching talent from its competitors in the AI field. Whether or not it will lead to legal issues later on remains to be seen. As some of you know, Meta landed itself in hot water over its WhatsApp and Instagram acquisitions. Regulators were convinced that Meta bought its rivals not so much because it helped the company, but more because it was about killing the competition.

Where does this leave Apple?

There is no doubt that Meta getting an Apple AI executive to jump ship will have an impact on the company’s AI efforts. As we said, the development of Apple Intelligence is severely lacking. Apple has partnered with OpenAI for more complex AI tasks. However, the company would prefer if people used its own AI services.

We have heard rumors that Apple is looking to acquire an AI company, like Perplexity. Whether or not that deal goes through remains to be seen.

That being said, there are some who believe that Apple still has a few years of leeway before its lackluster AI efforts will impact it negatively. This is because a lot of AI on smartphones feels like an afterthought. So, until an AI-first device comes along, Apple could still have some wiggle room.