Apple's head of AI search effort, Ke Yang, is leaving the company to join Meta Platforms, just weeks after being appointed to lead a team developing features to make Siri more ChatGPT-like. Yang's team, known as Answers, Knowledge and Information (AKI), is central to a major Siri revamp planned for March, which aims to enhance the voice assistant's ability to pull information from the web and handle complex requests.
Yang's departure marks another significant departure from Apple's artificial intelligence division, following the exit of Ruoming Pang, the founder of Apple's Foundation Models team, who also joined Meta. The AKI team is crucial to Apple's efforts to compete with OpenAI, Google, and other tech giants in the AI-powered search market. With Yang's departure, the AKI team will be relocated under Benoit Dupin, a deputy to AI chief John Giannandrea.
The departure highlights the intense competition for top talent in the AI space, with Meta aggressively hiring to strengthen its position. Yang's exit adds to the instability within Apple's AI ranks, with several top researchers and engineers leaving the company in recent months. Apple's revamped Siri is expected to include advanced features, such as tapping into personal data to handle complex requests, and will be part of the company's broader effort to revive its struggling AI operations.
Yang's move to Meta reflects the company's strategy to strengthen its AI division. As the AI landscape continues to evolve, companies like Apple and Meta are investing heavily in AI research and development to stay ahead of the competition. Yang's experience and expertise in AI-driven search and Siri development will likely be valuable assets for Meta as it looks to enhance its own AI capabilities.
