Apple’s foundation models team has been bleeding staff, and today Bloomberg has reported on yet another departure while Apple continues weighing a major AI pivot.

It’s been a rough month for Apple’s AI ambitions.

First, Meta hired away Apple’s head of foundation models. Then, two important colleagues followed their former boss to Meta.

Now today, a fourth foundation models staff member has reportedly gone to Meta’s new ‘Superintelligence’ team too.

Mark Gurman writes at Bloomberg:

Bowen Zhang, a key multimodal AI researcher at Apple, left the company on Friday and is set to join Meta’s recently formed superintelligence team, according to people familiar with the matter. Zhang was part of the Apple foundation models group, or AFM, which built the core technology behind the company’s AI platform.

Gurman adds that Apple has “been marginally increasing the pay of its AFM staffers,” but the new pay levels still “pale in comparison with those of rivals.”

The report also indicates Apple is still considering a bit pivot to using third-party LLMs to power its forthcoming Siri upgrades, and potentially other Apple Intelligence features.

In recent months, Apple started considering a move away from AFM models for a new version of its Siri voice assistant. The work includes powering Siri with OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic PBC’s Claude models.

The company is simultaneously working on a competing version based on new AFM models. While a final decision hasn’t been made, Apple’s exploration of outside options has triggered unease within AFM.

From the outside looking in, it seems like a tumultuous time for Apple’s AI efforts.

AI is clearly key to the company’s long-term success, but the inability to retain top talent will no doubt take a toll on Apple’s ability to catch up with competitors.

One thing seems clear: something needs to change or departures like these will become an even more common story in time.

How do you think Apple can stop its AI staff departures? Let us know in the comments.

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