Another Chinese AI executive from Apple has been poached by Meta with a high salary. This time, it's an alumnus of Tsinghua University and a PhD from CMU.

Another Chinese AI executive at Apple has been poached by Meta! According to Bloomberg, the person poached this time is Ke Yang, who is in charge of the AI search and Q&A system. He was appointed the head of the AKI team just a few weeks ago, with the responsibility of enabling Siri to catch up with the capabilities of mainstream large models like ChatGPT. Once the news of his departure came out, the future of Apple's AI may face more uncertainties.

At a time when Apple is trying to catch up in the AI field, a key figure has chosen to leave.

Ke Yang is an executive at Apple in charge of the AI search and Q&A system. A few weeks ago, he was appointed the head of the internally - coded AKI (Answers, Knowledge and Information) team.

And Bloomberg has just confirmed that he will join Meta.

The task of the AKI team is to make Siri more like ChatGPT: it can instantly extract information from the network and generate answers, rather than just performing simple tasks like announcing the weather or setting an alarm, which Siri could do long ago.

According to the original plan, this function will be launched as the core of Siri's "major overhaul" in March next year - a milestone symbolizing "Apple's return to the AI track".

Now, the departure of this key figure, who had just taken office and was regarded as the one to "make Siri smarter", means that the protagonist of this revival path has suddenly changed.

The turmoil in Apple's AI department has once again been exposed under the spotlight.

From Apple to Meta

Ke Yang Is Not Alone

Ke Yang's departure is not an isolated incident.

In the past six months, the personnel flow in Apple's AI department can almost be described as "centrifugal".

More than a dozen members of the Foundation Models team, which is responsible for the research and development of basic models, have left. Among them is Pang Ruoming, the founder. This scientist, who once led the research and development of Apple's core AI models, has also gone to the Meta Superintelligence Lab and set the highest salary for a Chinese person: $200 million.

Reference reading: The inside story of the departure of an Apple genius with a $200 - million four - year contract is exposed for the first time! Pang Ruoming sent a farewell letter, and Apple's AI suffered a major setback.

Within just a few months, several key members of Apple's AI team have joined Meta, including Chong Wang and Frank Chu.

Before this, Apple had just entrusted the AI reconstruction of Siri to two systems jointly:

One is the AIML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) group, led by John Giannandrea;

The other is the Siri engineering team, which belongs to Craig Federighi's software engineering department.

And Ke Yang is exactly the "interface person" across both sides. He needs to understand search and be able to integrate voice, cloud, and privacy systems.

The work of the AKI team was originally progressing intensively. They were developing a new ability codenamed "Answers", which would enable Siri not only to understand instructions but also to retrieve real - time data from web pages and give logical answers - this is exactly the core competitive area of ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.

However, this work requires coordinating multiple departments such as model, search quality evaluation, privacy compliance, and latency optimization. Any imbalance in any aspect may disrupt the entire rhythm.

What Meta wants may be a faster cycle: from model to product, from product to data, and then back to the model;

What Apple pursues may be a more stable experience - private, trustworthy, and seamlessly integrated.

These two rhythms represent two paths in the AI era:

One pursues speed and openness, and the other adheres to privacy and ecosystem.

The question is, can Siri become "fast" while remaining "stable"?

Ke Yang's departure makes this problem more difficult.

Apple must rebuild the team, reconcile the technical routes, and maintain user trust in a short period of time.

If the "March upgrade" is really released as scheduled, we may see the smartest transformation in Siri's history;

But we may also see an update forced to slow down - a giant hesitating in the face of the AI tide.

Apple's AI system may still not have found its "unified soul".

Introduction to Ke Yang

Ke Yang's Chinese name is Yang Ke.

Yang Ke is an alumnus of the Department of Computer Science, Class of 1993 at Tsinghua University. He went to the United States in 1998 to pursue a doctorate in computer science at CMU.

Right after graduating with his doctorate in 2004, Yang Ke joined Google and worked there for 11 years. He once served in Google Brain.

In 2019, he transferred to Apple and served as the senior director of machine learning.

Apple has continuously provided AI talents to Silicon Valley. As for when Apple's AI counter - attack will come, perhaps we have to wait for Apple's new CEO, who is about to succeed Tim Cook, to give the world an answer on whether they can "Make Apple Great Again".

Reference materials:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-15/apple-s-newly-tapped-head-of-chatgpt-like-ai-search-effort-to-leave-for-meta

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-26/apple-builds-a-chatgpt-like-app-to-help-test-the-revamped-siri

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-12/apple-targets-spring-2026-for-release-of-delayed-siri-ai-upgrade

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ke-yang-b247b99/

This article is from the WeChat official account "New Intelligence Yuan". The author is New Intelligence Yuan, and the editor is Allen. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.