Meta poaches top Apple AI researchers amid industry talent war

Meta Platforms has successfully attracted two prominent artificial intelligence (AI) researchers from Apple, highlighting the fierce competition for elite AI talent in the industry. This recruitment follows Meta's recent acquisition of Ruoming Pang, who previously led Apple's large language model division. The new additions, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter, were essential players in Apple's AI initiatives and will be joining Meta's Superintelligence Labs team, as confirmed by sources familiar with the situation. Lee has already begun his tenure at Meta, while Gunter is slated to start shortly. Although Meta has yet to officially announce these hires, the move reflects CEO Mark Zuckerberg's determination to place the company at the forefront of AI innovation. Zuckerberg has prioritized AI development, committing substantial resources to compete with industry leaders like OpenAI and Google. Recently, he mentioned on Threads that Meta plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in computing power to advance superintelligence. Gunter, who was a distinguished engineer at Apple, left the company last month and briefly joined another AI firm before transitioning to Meta. Lee, who was reportedly the first hire made by Pang at Apple, also recently departed. Both researchers played crucial roles in Apple's Foundation Models team, responsible for the firm's generative AI projects. Meta's lucrative offer to Pang, exceeding $200 million, seems to have set a new standard for compensation in the field. Gunter and other members of Meta's AI division are believed to have secured multi-year contracts worth over $100 million, illustrating the company's aggressive recruitment strategy. Meanwhile, Apple faces internal challenges within its AI division, particularly as its Foundation Models team, which develops AI models for Siri and Apple Intelligence, is undergoing significant changes. Senior leaders at Apple are reportedly considering the integration of third-party models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, for future products. As Apple navigates these uncertainties, key AI executives including Research Head Daphne Luong and SVP John Giannandrea are working with software leaders Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell to chart the future of Siri and related AI services, with plans for a rollout next spring. In response to Meta's recruitment tactics, Apple has begun offering pay raises to certain members of its Foundation Models team, estimated at around 100 employees, in an effort to retain critical talent. However, these increases reportedly do not match the substantial offers being made by Meta.