The Apple Inc. executive leading an effort to develop AI-driven web search is stepping down, marking the latest in a string of high-profile exits from the company’s artificial intelligence division.
The executive, Ke Yang, is leaving for Meta Platforms Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter. Just weeks ago, he was appointed head of a team called Answers, Knowledge and Information, or AKI. The group is developing features to make the Siri voice assistant more ChatGPT-like by adding the ability to pull information from the web.
That team is central to a major Siri revamp planned for March, part of Apple’s broader effort to revive its struggling AI operations. The new version of Siri will also include features delayed from earlier this year, such as the ability to tap into personal data to handle more complex requests.
The Answers feature, in particular, was designed to help Apple better compete with OpenAI, Perplexity and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Gemini in the AI-powered search market – a space rapidly gaining traction among both smartphone and computer users.
Yang recently became a direct report to John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president of AI and machine learning. He had led the search-focused elements of the AKI group before taking over the entire division – a move that followed the departure of its previous head, Robby Walker.
Representatives for Apple and Meta didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The new Siri is being developed as a joint effort between Apple’s artificial intelligence and machine learning group, known as AIML, and the Siri engineering team now overseen by Craig Federighi’s software organisation.
Within AIML, Yang was regarded as the most prominent executive working on the new Siri initiative. His exit ranks among the biggest departures from Apple’s AI organisation this year – a period marked by a steady exodus of top researchers building the company’s AI core models.
Roughly a dozen members of that team – known internally as Apple Foundation Models – have departed, including its founder and lead scientist, Ruoming Pang. He and a number of others also joined Meta, which is building a new group called Superintelligence Labs.
Several of the Apple team’s remaining members expect many more people to leave in the coming months.
Sam Wiseman, a New York-based Apple researcher, left earlier this month to join Reflection AI. And one of Apple’s most senior remaining researchers, Chong Wang, departed for Meta last week.
In August, the social networking giant hired Frank Chu, another senior leader in Apple’s AI group. He also led search-related AI teams.
The continued departures underscore the instability within Apple’s AI ranks at a time when it’s racing to catch up with OpenAI and Google, both of which are advancing quickly in generative AI and search. Apple also has been interviewing outside replacements for Giannandrea, Bloomberg News has reported.
With Yang’s exit, the AKI team is being relocated under Benoit Dupin, a Giannandrea deputy who oversees machine learning-related cloud infrastructure for Apple. – Bloomberg
