Apple hires dozens of AI experts from Google

Apple will start using the Zurich Vision Lab facilities in Switzerland to design new artificial intelligence (AI) products, according to AppleInsider . This is where the company used to develop the Titan project for the Apple Car but stopped. In order to increase the quality of the team at the Zurich Vision Lab, Apple has hired a number of AI employees from Google. This is based on LinkedIn profiles, job offers and other documents.

“If you want something done right, hire the best people.” This classic phrase from Steve Jobs’ advice for success continues to inform Apple’s product development. In fact, research from Switch on Business shows that the majority of employees who leave Google end up working for Apple.

In this round of hiring, Apple has hired up to 36 AI experts from Google to work on its next projects. Going into more detail, Apple has recruited members for its general AI team at two locations in Zurich, with one of them being so secretive that some people around it don't even know about its existence.

In a statement in February, CEO Tim Cook hinted that synthetic AI features would appear on the company's devices. He also said Apple is spending "a huge amount of time and effort" on AI, but the company has yet to share specifics about how it will use AI. The company recently introduced an open-source language model called OpenELM, which promises to be able to efficiently perform text-based tasks like writing emails. This AI model is open-source and available for developers to use.

Apple is expected to make all of its AI announcements at its WWDC 2024 developer conference in June, including iOS 18, iPadOS 18, tvOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11, and VisionOS 2.