Apple loses key AI executive to competitor

Things are happening at Apple – but not in a positive way. While the tech giant has been striving to catch up in the field of artificial intelligence for years, one of its most important minds is now leaving the company. Ruoming Pang, responsible for foundational models at Apple, is moving to Meta. This means Apple is facing another setback, while Meta takes the next step in building a world-class AI team.

Meta has announced it is building a new team called "Meta Superintelligence Labs." The goal is to bring on board the best talent in the field of artificial intelligence. One of the first prominent hires is Ruoming Pang, who was previously responsible for core AI models at Apple. This underlines that Apple is not only struggling with technical challenges, but is also under pressure in the fight for skilled workers.

Apple's AI team loses its leader

Pang joined Apple in 2021, having previously worked at Google. Within Apple, he led a team of around 100 people responsible for key functions of the new "Apple Intelligence," including:

Genmoji, a feature for creating personalized emojis
Priority Notifications
On-Device Text Summarization, i.e. the summarization of text directly on the device

These technologies are intended to form the basis for a more intelligent and contextual user experience on Apple devices, especially with a view to an improved Siri. Internally, Pang's team was part of the so-called AFM (Apple Foundation Models) group, which was heavily involved in Apple's strategic realignment in the field of AI. Bloomberg reports that Pang's group played a central role in the next generation of Siri. Internal discussions are said to have taken place about whether Apple should rely on its own models in the long term or collaborate with external providers such as OpenAI or Anthropic.

Meta offers millions – and gets it

According to Bloomberg , Meta is said to have convinced Pang with an offer of several million dollars a year. He is moving to Menlo Park and will be part of the new Meta Superintelligence Lab, which Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg announced last week. This team will form the foundation for Meta's future AI strategy. Pang isn't the only new addition. Also new at Meta:

Yuanzhi Li, researcher at OpenAI
Anton Bakhtin, formerly of Anthropic, worked there on the Claude model

In recent months, Meta has also signed several prominent names from the AI industry, including:

Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI
Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub
Daniel Gross, CEO of Safe Superintelligence

This targeted personnel policy shows that Meta is pursuing a clear strategy: to become a leader in generative AI – with a focus on superintelligence.

Apple faces further staff losses

According to Bloomberg, Ruoming Pang's departure could be just the beginning. Other members of the AFM group are also said to be considering a move. Several engineers have reportedly already announced internally that they also want to move to Meta or other companies. For example, Tom Gunter, a close colleague of Pang's, left Apple last month. He was also part of the AI team and, according to Bloomberg, was involved in key projects. Zhifeng Chen will now lead the AFM team. The previous structure, in which most engineers reported directly to Pang, will be replaced by a distributed management system. In addition to Chen, several other managers are expected to assume leadership roles, including possibly:

Chong Wang
Zirui Wang
Chung Cheng Chiu
Guoli Yin

Whether this new structure will work remains to be seen – but it is certain that Apple is facing an internal reorganization in a phase of important technological changes.

Apple Intelligence: Cooperation instead of in-house development

Apple continues to come under pressure in the AI race

Ruoming Pang's move to Meta isn't an isolated event. It's part of a larger development in which Apple is struggling to keep up with the AI competition—both technologically and in terms of personnel. While Meta and other competitors are pursuing aggressive strategies to retain talent and expand teams, Apple now faces the task of recalibrating its AI program. The coming months will show whether Apple can offset this setback—or whether further departures will further weaken the AI team. (Image: Shutterstock / jittawit21)