Apple Poaches Google AI Experts for Secret Zurich Lab

In a move reinforcing its commitment to artificial intelligence, Apple Inc. is significantly bolstering its AI capabilities by tapping into a trove of talent and establishing innovative research hubs outside the United States. Notably, the tech behemoth has lured a considerable number of AI specialists away from rivals such as Google, and it has recently launched an advanced AI-focused laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland.

The Financial Times uncovers that Apple, led by its principal AI visionary John Giannandrea—formerly a top executive at Google—has brought on board at least 36 AI experts from its competitor since 2018. Giannandrea’s recruitment marked a determined drive to scale new AI heights for the Cupertino-based giant.

Apple’s robust AI teams are primarily spread across California and Seattle. However, the company is noticeably widening its geographical footprint with offices dedicated to AI initiatives. Zurich’s “Vision Lab” is illustrative of Apple’s strategic global positioning and echoes its acquisitions of Switzerland-based AI startups: FaceShift, specializing in virtual reality, and Fashwell, focusing on image recognition technology. Such moves position Apple advantageously in the AI landscape.

The clandestine Vision Lab, as reports suggest, plays a pivotal role in Apple’s exploration of the foundational technologies that animate conversational AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The lab’s team is diving deep into the development of sophisticated AI models that seamlessly merge text and visual data to generate intelligent responses to user queries.

For over a decade, neural networks—a key component of AI reminiscent of human brain function—have been central to Apple’s AI research. In fact, underlying technologies like those seen in the AI text generator, ChatGPT, can trace their lineage back to Apple’s endeavours with virtual assistant Siri, which has been employing neural networks to enhance speech recognition capabilities long before large language models (LLMs) gained prominence.

Chuck Wooters, who joined Apple in 2013 and is an authority on conversational AI, shares that even in the early phases of Siri’s development, Apple was already preparing the groundwork for a neural network architecture in speech recognition, underscoring an early commitment to the potential of neural networks.

Current figures in Apple’s AI leadership include exponents of Google’s AI brain trust, like the aforementioned Giannandrea, and AI intellectuals like Samy Bengio and Ruoming Pang—who now direct various AI and ML (machine learning) projects at Apple—with past tenures at Google pioneering AI research.

A significant milestone in Apple’s AI journey was its acquisition in 2016 of Perceptual Machines, an AI innovation house with expertise in generative AI-powered image detection. Its founder, Ruslan Salakhutdinov, possesses deep roots in the neural networks field, having been mentored by AI luminary Geoffrey Hinton of the University of Toronto. Salakhutdinov’s insights reflect a careful approach to AI deployment at Apple, noting the risks associated with language models that might yield unreliable or sensitive outputs.

Looking ahead, Apple’s upcoming iOS 18 is rumored to boast an array of new AI-driven features that could be manifest in Siri, as well as other Apple applications including Spotlight, Shortcuts, Apple Music, and beyond. Such enhancements are anticipated to leverage Apple’s proprietary on-device LLM technologies, yet also open the possibility of fresh collaborations with tech entities such as Google, OpenAI, and Baidu.

As the global AI race intensifies, key developments such as Apple’s Zurich lab and the significant inroads they are making in artificial intelligence-generated images demonstrate the company’s pursuit of innovation while keeping a keen eye on the responsible integration of powerful AI tools. An early look at these technologies is expected to surface at the Worldwide Developers Conference, slated for June 10, where iOS 18 will make its debut. Enthusiasts for the latest AI news & AI tools are keenly anticipating this revelation, marking a critical milestone in Apple’s strategic AI voyage.