Apple’s Top AI Exec Ruoming Pang Joins Meta Amid Talent War

Apple's head of foundation models Ruoming Pang has defected to Meta's Superintelligence Labs, marking another high-profile departure from the iPhone maker's AI division. The MOVE follows his deputy Tom Gunter's exit last month and comes as Meta aggressively recruits top artificial intelligence talent.

Pang led a 100-engineer team developing Core language models for Apple Intelligence features like Genmoji and Priority Notifications. His departure deals a significant blow to Apple's in-house AI capabilities, particularly as the company faces scrutiny over its reliance on external partnerships with firms like OpenAI.

Meta continues its AI talent acquisition spree after recently acquiring a 49% stake in Scale AI for $14.3 billion. The social media giant's aggressive hiring strategy is widening the talent gap in the competitive AI landscape, though questions remain about the sustainability of such rapid expansion.