Just days after hiring Ruoming Pang, who had led Apple’s foundation model efforts, Meta is reuniting him with two former colleagues from Cupertino.
Engineers Mark Lee and Tom Gunter to reunite with their former boss from Cupertino
As reported by Bloomberg, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter, both key members of Apple’s Foundation Models (AFM) group, are joining Meta’s Superintelligence Labs team:
Lee was known as Pang’s first hire at Apple, while Gunter, who was a distinguished engineer at Apple, was regarded as one of the group’s most senior employees.
Lee had reportedly recently left Apple, and has already started at Meta. Meanwhile, Gunter departed last month, and briefly joined another AI startup before deciding to head to Menlo Park.
The new hires follow the high-profile departure of Ruoming Pang, the former head of large language models at Apple, who reportedly joined Meta on a compensation package worth more than $200 million over the next several years. At the time, Bloomberg reported that other senior members of Apple’s AI team could soon follow.
Meta’s hiring spree continues further
CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently declared that AI is Meta’s top priority, and these moves underscore just how aggressive its recruitment push has become.
The company had been steadily pulling top AI talent from direct competitors like OpenAI and Google, but now it appears to be capitalizing on Apple’s internal drama, as it still debates whether to stick with in-house models or adopt third-party options for Siri and other AI features.
Meanwhile, morale among Apple’s AI teams is reportedly slipping, as engineers feel scapegoated for the recent high-profile fumbles. Now, Meta appears to be seizing the moment to lure away disillusioned engineers before Apple can stabilize the situation.
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