Meta has successfully hired a new employee, but this time, they poached said employee from Apple. Specifically, Meta was able to hire Ruoming Pang, the head of Apple's foundational models group head, according to the latest reports.
This newest hire will bolster Mark Zuckerberg's Superintelligence Labs once again, following their infamous "poaching" spree across the top companies involved in artificial intelligence.
Meta has been working double time to build its new Superintelligence Labs using aggressive poaching tactics which involved offering significant signing bonuses and extravagant compensation packages to rival company staffers.
Meta Hires Apple's Foundational Models Head
Bloomberg reported that a new executive was successfully hired by Meta in its quest to build its super AI team, but this time, it is from Apple. Specifically, it is the head of its foundational models, Ruoming Pang. The latest report revealed that Pang is now moving from Cupertino to Menlo Park, still in California's renowned Silicon Valley, and will join the new AI team under Meta.
Pang joined Apple in 2021, coming from his stint over at Google where he worked as the leader of a hundred-staff team that developed Apple Intelligence and worked on its features like Image Playground, Genmoji, and more.
According to 9to5Mac, Pang's departure from Apple deals a massive blow to the Cupertino-based tech giant as the group he is leading is tasked to work on Siri's next-generation AI upgrade that has since been delayed.
New Hire for Superintelligence Labs
The Bloomberg report claimed that Pang was offered a multi-million-dollar annual package by Meta. Under Scale's Alexandr Wang's leadership, the Superintelligence Labs will develop the next step on Meta AI's development towards what it calls "superintelligence."
Moreover, it was reported that Pang's departure may trigger a chain of events that may lead to Apple's foundational models staff leaving the company in favor of Meta or other big AI names.
Meta's Poaching Spree for AI
It was previously unknown to the public that Meta is building a new division for its AI developments within the company until OpenAI CEO Sam Altman unveiled that Mark Zuckerberg is on a poaching spree in the "Uncapped" podcast.
However, Altman was sure that Meta could not turn OpenAI employees to the other side despite the lavish offers that included as much as $100 million signing bonus for one of its staff members.
That being said, the reality was far from that as Meta was successful in its quest to build the Superintelligence Labs, which the company officially revealed by the end of June, featuring its fresh hires from the industry. Zuckerberg and Meta's work paid off as they were able to onboard several key OpenAI employees, including a foundational contributor to the O1 reasoning model, Trapit Bansal.
It did not end there as Meta went on to hire more OpenAI employees which prompted a significant action from its rival, going as far as to recalibrate their compensation to employees to stop more poaching.
It was likewise revealed that Meta also hired several key employees from Anthropic and Google, two of the most renowned companies developing AI at present.
Originally published on Tech Times
