Meta (META, Financial) has further bolstered its artificial intelligence (AI) team by hiring two prominent AI researchers, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter, both of whom previously worked at Apple (AAPL). This move follows Meta's earlier recruitment of Ruoming Pang, a leader in Apple's large language model team. These strategic hires highlight the ongoing competition for AI talent within the tech industry, with Meta being particularly aggressive in its recruitment efforts.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has prioritized AI, investing heavily in talent acquisition and data center development to keep pace with rivals like OpenAI and Google. Gunter and Lee's departure from Apple reflects internal challenges within Apple's foundational models team, which is responsible for developing technologies underpinning generative AI. Amidst this uncertainty, Meta has offered lucrative compensation packages, often surpassing Apple's offers, to attract top talent.
Apple, meanwhile, is exploring external models to enhance its Siri voice assistant and other smart features, considering options like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude as potential foundations. With plans to launch new Siri capabilities next year, Apple is working on versions using both in-house and third-party technologies.
