While Australia’s Prime Minister says AI will create jobs rather than take them, the war for AI talent is heating up. Apple has lost a key member of its AI team to Meta, with the Facebook parent offering massive pay packets to bolster its AI team. For Australia, that means any efforts we make to boost local AI development is likely to result in the cream of the technical crop being scooped up and offered a king’s ransom to work in Silicon Valley.
Ruoming Pang’s team off 100 at Apple is responsible for the large language models that power Apple Intelligence and other AI features in iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Pang joined Apple from Alphabet and now he’s heading off to Meta, which is building a new ‘super intelligence’ team. That team is comprised of several other high profile AI leaders that have been lured by multi-million dollar salary packages.
With Apple already considering a major strategic shift and licensing or purchasing the technology and expertise it needs to remedy its Apple Intelligence woes, the loss of Pang is significant. It hits Apple on two fronts: the loss of an important leader and a boost for its competition. And as people move from Apple, it projects an image of Apple’s AI program coming apart.
The challenge for Apple will be whether it can match the pay offers being made to the best and brightest AI engineers and if it can turn its AI ship around and bring its ambitions to fruition.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.