Apple's AI Strategy in Turmoil: Senior Researcher Departs, MLX Team Nearly Quits

Apple faces AI talent turmoil as senior Siri researcher departs

A senior researcher's exit and a near-mutiny among Apple Intelligence engineers expose Apple's struggle to stay competitive in the AI arms race. Apple is facing mounting internal fractures over its AI strategy, losing one of its top researchers while scrambling to keep key teams on board. It increasingly looks like a crisis of confidence in Cupertino. Tom Gunter, one of Apple's most senior large language model researchers, has left the company after eight years. Colleagues say his deep expertise is tough to replace, especially as rivals like Meta and OpenAI throw around multimillion-dollar pay packages to poach talent. The news comes in a Monday report from Bloomberg that also alleges Apple plans to integrate rival AI models more deeply into Siri. Apple is no longer the most desirable shop in town for machine learning. If it can't match competitors' salaries, Apple risks losing valuable talent. Additionally, the company must provide them with compelling and meaningful projects. Otherwise, it risks its machine learning team becoming hollowed out. Apple nearly lost the entire team behind MLX, its open-source machine learning framework optimized for Apple Silicon. Those engineers reportedly threatened to quit, forcing the company to scramble with counteroffers to keep them. The fact that it came to that brink suggests morale is shaky and confidence in leadership is eroding. MLX isn't a throwaway side project, it's essential for Apple's strategy to get cutting-edge AI running efficiently on its chips. Losing that team would have been a disaster. Apple averted catastrophe this time. But paying people to stay isn't the same as keeping them motivated and aligned with the company's mission. These staffing dramas are a symptom of a deeper strategic confusion. Apple is debating whether to keep investing in its own foundation models or outsource core AI features like Siri to Anthropic or OpenAI. Internally, executives reportedly see their own models as inferior. That kind of language does not inspire confidence in the teams building them. Siri has lagged competitors for years. Outsourcing to Anthropic or OpenAI might be the only way to catch up quickly, even if it undermines Apple's reputation for vertical integration.

Apple's Top LLM Researcher Quits; MLX Team 'Threatened' to Leave: Report | AIM

Tom Gunter, one of Apple's most senior researchers, left the company last week, Bloomberg reported on June 30. Gunter worked at the company for eight years, and the report added that his colleagues see him as "difficult to replace, given his unique skillset". Furthermore, the company was also reported to have 'nearly lost' the team behind MLX, an open-source machine learning framework designed for Apple's in-house silicon hardware. However, they made counteroffers after the engineers "threatened" to leave, and eventually retained them. "Given how crucial it is, the team should have already been scaled up fivefold. Instead, it seems to be neglected by management," said Ronald Mannak, creator of Pico, a suite of LLM apps and tools for iOS and macOS, which is built on MLX. The development comes at a time when Apple is considering options to utilise third-party AI models for a new version of Siri, its virtual assistant. According to the report, members have indicated internally that they're unhappy with Apple's exploration of third-party options, which is creating a perception that they're responsible for the company's AI shortcomings. These employees also said that they could leave for 'multimillion-dollar packages' being offered by companies like Meta and OpenAI. Moreover, Bloomberg noted that Apple often pays its engineers half, or even less, than what's offered in the open market. One of the significant troubles the company has been facing is the delay of an upgraded version of Siri, which was announced in 2024. It is delayed until 2026, with reports highlighting that Apple struggled to mitigate various bugs and engineering problems within Siri. Recently, it was reported that Apple is interested in acquiring Perplexity AI, which is valued at $14 billion. Besides, Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, revealed that Apple has had discussions with Perplexity to integrate AI-enabled search services on Safari. The company is exploring various AI labs, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, to integrate AI search features into Safari. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that the company is in talks with Apple to integrate Gemini into Apple Intelligence this year. Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook, in an interaction with Pichai, said that 'more third-party AI models' would ship to Apple Intelligence this year.