Senior Apple AI executive Robby Walker is about to leave the company, further exacerbating the talent drain.

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Apple's senior director of AI search business, Robby Walker, will leave next month, marking a further escalation of talent loss in the AI sector for the iPhone maker.

On September 12, according to media reports, Robby Walker, one of Apple’s most senior executives in artificial intelligence, plans to leave next month. Walker is one of the few senior staff who reported directly to Apple’s head of AI, John Giannandrea

Walker’s departure is receiving particular attention because of his core role in two of Apple’s key AI projects. Until earlier this year, he was in charge of the Siri voice assistant, but after public delays in promised updates to the feature, leadership transferred to software chief Craig Federighi.

Afterwards, Walker became one of the key executives responsible for developing an all-new AI-powered web search system, a project designed to compete with products such as Perplexity and ChatGPT and is planned to debut next year.

Apple’s struggles in the AI field have already affected investor sentiment, causing its stock price to drop nearly 7% so far this year. Although it rebounded by 1.7% on Friday, the personnel shake-up within its core AI team remains a focus for the market.

Setbacks in Siri Project Lead to Role Adjustment

Walker previously led development work on the Siri voice assistant, but after promised feature updates were publicly delayed, oversight of the project was transferred earlier this year to software head Craig Federighi.

After this personnel change, although Walker remained with the company, his responsibilities and team size were significantly reduced over the past few months.

According to reports, at an internal meeting in March, Walker refuted criticism about Siri’s feature delays, while also acknowledging the delays were embarrassing. He said:

We have swum hundreds of miles, we set the Guinness World Record for swimming distance, but we still haven’t reached Hawaii. What people criticize isn’t our outstanding swimming performance, but the fact that we haven’t arrived at the destination.

AI Department Talent Outflow Continues to Accelerate

Walker’s departure further highlights the talent challenges Apple’s AI department faces.

As mentioned by WallstreetCN, last Tuesday Apple’s chief AI robotics researcher Jian Zhang jumped to Meta’s Robotics Studio. Meta confirmed Zhang’s arrival on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, media learned that three of Apple’s large language model researchers—John Peebles, Nan Du, and Zhao Meng—have also left.

All three came from the Apple Foundation Models Team, which is the core development team for the Apple Intelligence platform, but nearly 10 members have left this team in recent weeks, including the team leader.

With Walker’s departure this week, the outlook for Apple’s AI search project, which is planned for release next year, is also clouded in uncertainty.

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