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Meta has successfully executed another high-profile acquisition. The tech giant has hired Ke Yang, a Siri expert, to lead the new Superintelligence Labs’ AI innovations. Almost every competitor in the field of AI is now aiming to dominate the upcoming era of technology, as AI talent war continues to be the main agenda.
Yang has been an integral part of Apple’s AI model for the past six years. According to his LinkedIn profile, Ke Yang graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and emerged as a key figure in the global tech landscape.
He was appointed as the head of the Answers, Knowledge, and Information (AKI) team, which is central to the Siri voice assistant’s overhaul planned for March. Yang’s work was focused on developing AI-driven web search capabilities to elevate the Siri voice assistant to a new level of sophistication.
Yang led a team to transform Siri into a more intelligent and competitive virtual assistant by integrating advanced artificial intelligence similar to ChatGPT. This initiative forms part of a major Siri revamp, central to Apple’s broader effort to rejuvenate its AI operations, according to Bloomberg.
Apple’s AKI team will now report to Benoit Dupin, a deputy to John Giannandrea, who is Apple’s senior vice president of AI and machine learning.
Yang’s exit follows a rising trend of Apple’s key AI professionals joining Meta. According to a Bloomberg report, around a dozen members of Apple’s Foundation Models team have left, including its founder and lead scientist, Ruoming Pang, who now leads innovations at Meta’s new Superintelligence Labs.
Previously, Apple's senior AI researchers, including Chong Wang and Frank Chu, joined Meta. Additionally, Sam Wiseman, a New York-based Apple researcher, recently left for Reflection AI.
While rivals like Meta, Google, and OpenAI continue to make rapid progress, Apple’s challenge lies in retaining top AI talent and delivering on its long-promised next-generation Siri experience.
These significant departures underscore a period of turbulence within Apple’s AI operations as the tech giant works to revitalize Siri and strengthen its generative AI capabilities.
However, the partnership between Apple’s AI and Machine Learning group (AIML), led by Giannandrea, and Craig Federighi’s software engineering team highlights Apple’s renewed focus on integrating AI more deeply into its ecosystem.
Meta, led by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, has been aggressively recruiting AI specialists to strengthen its position as an AI pioneer. The Facebook co-founder has even offered top-tier research talent pay packages of up to $300 million over four years.
“For our superintelligence effort, I’m focused on building the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry,” Zuckerberg said in a Threads post a couple of months ago.
Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed Meta was offering his employees $100 million signing bonuses to switch companies.
Now led by Alexandr Wang, Meta’s entire AI operation in Superintelligence Labs has received an investment of 14.3 billion dollars till now. Alexandr also oversees Meta’s other AI product and research teams.
Unlike other tech titans, Meta doesn’t have a cloud computing business to generate immediate revenue from those infrastructure investments. Moreover, the company is lagging behind competitors after delays in releasing the largest version of its new Llama 4 AI model.
Neither Apple nor Meta has publicly commented on Ke Yang’s new role, but industry analysts view the move as a noteworthy moment in the competitive AI talent race.
