Mark Zuckerberg, Visual China Archive
Facebook’s parent company Meta has recently recruited two senior AI researchers who previously worked at Apple. Not long ago, these researchers had already joined Meta before their former bosses.
On July 17th local time, well-known technology journalist Mark Goldman revealed that according to an anonymous source, the social media giant has brought Mark Lee and Tom Gunter under its super smart research lab. Among them, Lee has recently left Apple and joined Meta, while Gunter plans to join soon. Since the recruitment information has not been officially announced, the source chose to disclose it anonymously.
Bloomberg previously reported that Gunter left Apple last month. He had deep collaboration with Pang Ruoming, the AI director of the Apple’s fundamental model (AFM) team, and Pang Ruoming joined Meta earlier this month. Reports indicate that in order to attract Pang Ruoming, Meta tailored a compensation package worth over $200 million.
Foreign media reports that Pang Ruoming is the first person to switch from Apple to Meta under MSL. This victory for Meta is another loss for Apple, which has yet to fulfill its promise to upgrade its products and services with AI.
Lee was the first employee hired by Pang Ruoming after his tenure at Apple, and Gunter is also an outstanding engineer within Apple, considered one of its most experienced employees.
Recently, the AI team at Apple has been experiencing continuous turmoil.
The Fundamental Model Team (AFM) is responsible for developing the foundational technologies of generative AI.
However, Apple’s senior leadership has been considering using external models to support Siri and other Apple Intelligence features, casting a shadow over the team’s future.
Reports indicate that this team is reporting to Daphne Luong, the deputy head of Apple AI, who is also the senior vice president of AI at Apple. The Apple AI team is evaluating strategic changes alongside Mike Rockwell, the head of software, and Craig Federighi, with plans to rely on ChatGPT or Claude as the foundation for Apple Intelligence.
Meta has capitalized on Apple’s uncertainty, offering lucrative job opportunities. Foreign media reports suggest that Meta offers engineers significantly higher salaries than Apple. To prevent more engineers from leaving, Apple has begun to raise wages to retain them. However, these increases are far from matching Meta’s offer.
This dynamic is a microcosm of the AI talent competition in the tech industry. As Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta has been particularly active in recruiting talent recently. Its CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI a core strategy of the company, not only investing heavily in employee development but also spending substantial funds on data centers to catch up with competitors like OpenAI and Google in the race.
Earlier this week, Zuckerberg posted that Meta would “invest hundreds of billions of dollars to build super intelligence.” He stated, “I am committed to building the most elite team and one of the most highly skilled teams in the industry.”