Apple’s brain drain woes unlikely to end anytime soon unless it starts making employees millionaires

There has been a massive problem plaguing Apple for a while now: its AI researchers keep getting scooped up by Meta. According to industry insider Mark Gurman’s newsletter Power On, this brain drain from Apple is very unlikely to end anytime soon, unless the company pays its employees what Meta is offering.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is convinced of two things: AR glasses are the future, and AI will be the backbone of said glasses. As such, Meta has invested billions of Dollars into XR (Extended Reality) over the last few years, and is now doing the same for Artificial Intelligence.

It’s Apple that is suffering, as now a fifth AI researcher has left the company to join Meta’s Superintelligence Labs group. Naturally, this also puts the already underdeveloped Apple Intelligence at even greater risk.

Zuckerberg has been offering mouthwatering amounts of money to AI researchers. According to Gurman, the low morale at Apple has meant that many have been grateful for the offer. Further departures from Apple aren’t just likely, but almost expected at this point.

Not everyone is willing to work for Meta, however. Recently, Meta offered a billion Dollars to one researcher, but they declined the offer. Their colleagues, who were offered up to $500 million each, all also turned Meta down. The workers cited problems with Meta’s leadership for their declinations.

However, Apple’s continued failings with the new Siri have meant that the company’s employees haven’t been picky about who offers them a better deal.

Still, this hasn’t stopped Apple from trying its best to ensure that a better version of Siri makes it to its user base sooner rather than later. The company has been quietly working on improvements for its App Intents framework, which means that certain Siri features are closer to launch than you might think.

As for Mark Zuckerberg’s aforementioned fascination with AI-powered AR smart glasses, Apple is also taking a keen interest in a pair of glasses of its own. Samsung and Google, with their Project Moohan running on Android XR, are also ultimately aiming for smart AR glasses to replace the smartphone.