To say that Apple is facing an AI talent crisis would be an understatement, and the situation is only getting worse. After losing some of its top AI talent last month, the company is now parting with more key AI engineers.
The latest loss for Apple is Jian Zhang, the company’s lead artificial intelligence researcher for robotics, according to Bloomberg. He’s joining the competing Meta Robotics Studio, which was confirmed by the social media company. That same team has seen about a dozen people leaving in the last few weeks.
Over the last week, Apple has lost three more AI engineers, who were all part of the Apple Foundation Models team. John Peebles and Nan Du are going to OpenAI, and Zhao Meng is going to Anthropic.
Do you think Apple can develop its own AI technology?
Yes, the company has enough resources for it
81.82%
Maybe, if they stop losing people
0%
No, way, it’s too far behind now
18.18%
The Apple Foundation Models team was at the core of the creation of Apple Intelligence. The platform was launched last year, but so far it has failed to catch up with the leading AI labs. That failure has exposed many internal issues at Apple, which have led to one of the most embarrassing episodes in the company’s recent history.
Apple’s struggles with AI are so serious that the company is considering using external technology to catch up. One of the company’s options may be to rely on Google’s Gemini AI to finally deliver on the smarter Siri it promised last year.
According to other reports, Apple had internal discussions to solve its issues through acquisitions. Among the companies it was looking at were the Paris-based Mistral AI and Perplexity, which is behind one of the most popular AI-powered search engines.
While Apple is losing talent, Samsung and Google are offering powerful AI integrations on their devices. The Pixel 10 and Galaxy S25 are already getting the best of Gemini, while the “built for Apple Intelligence” iPhone 16 is falling behind.
We won’t hear about Apple’s internal drama at the iPhone 17 premiere on September 9, but I hope we learn more about where the company is heading. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple has some big announcements, though it might be even less likely to follow up on them than before.
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Ilia, a tech journalist at PhoneArena, has been covering the mobile industry since 2011, with experience at outlets like Forbes Bulgaria. Passionate about smartphones, tablets, and consumer tech, he blends deep industry knowledge with a personal fascination that began with his first Nokia and Sony Ericsson devices. Originally from Bulgaria and now based in Lima, Peru, Ilia balances his tech obsessions with walking his dog, training at the gym, and slowly mastering Spanish.
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