• The AI division at Apple faces another major loss as Ke Yang, head of the AI search team, exits for Meta. 
• Yang’s team was developing new Siri features to make the voice assistant more ChatGPT-like through web-powered answers.
• His departure adds to a wave of top AI researchers leaving Apple for Meta amid intensifying competition in AI talent.

Apple

Apple has been facing a series of high profile exits from the company’s artificial intelligence division. Most recently, an executive leading an effort to develop AI -driven web search is stepping down. 

The executive, Ke Yang, was recently appointed head of a team called Answers, Knowledge and Information, or AKI. This team is developing feature to make Siri more ChatGPT-like by adding the ability to pull information from the web.

AI Race

According to Bloomberg’s sources, Ke Yang is leaving for Meta. The new Siri is being developed as a joint effort between Apple’s AI and machine learning group, known as AIML. 

That team is central to a major Siri revamp, part of Apple’s effort to revive its AI operations.The new version of Siri will also include features delayed from earlier this year. This includes the ability to tap into personal data to handle more complex requests. The Answers feature, in particular, was designed to help Apple better compete with OpenAI, Perplexity and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Gemini in the AI-powered search market. 

Within AIML, Yang was considered as the most prominent executive working on the new Siri initiative. His exit ranks among the biggest departures from Apple’s AI organization this year. 

This period has seen a steady stream of top researchers leaving Apple’s AI core models team. Earlier this month, Sam Wiseman, an Apple researcher left to join Reflection AI. Last week, another one of Apple’s most senior remaining researchers, Chong Wang also departed for Meta. Additionally, in August, Meta hired Frank Chu, another senior leader in Apple’s AI group. Moreover, Ruoming Pang, who led Apple’s AI models team, left for Meta. and many of his engineers and researchers followed. 

This era of departures underscores the insatiability within Apple’s AI ranks at a time when the big tech companies are advancing quickly in the AI race.