Apple, once the world's most valuable company, has now ceded that throne to Microsoft, which is currently leading the AI race. But Apple appears to be quietly plotting a comeback. According to the Financial Times, Apple has opened a secret AI lab in Zurich, Switzerland, and has been poaching numerous AI experts from Google in order to accelerate its AI research there.

The Financial Times analyzed hundreds of job postings, LinkedIn profiles, and research papers spanning the past several years, revealing that Apple has poached at least 36 AI experts from Google since 2018. Among these former key Google members are John Giannandrea, who previously led Google Brain (now Apple's senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy), and Samy Bengio, who was one of Google's top AI scientists. Ruoming Pang, who led Google's AI speech recognition research, has also joined Apple.

Furthermore, according to Professor Luc Van Gool of ETH Zurich, Apple has opened a new research facility in Zurich known as the "Vision Lab." Experts from two locally acquired companies, FaceShift and Fashwell, work at this facility. Apple acquired the motion capture company FaceShift in 2015 and acquired Fashwell, which specializes in AI-powered visual search, in 2019. It has also been reported that Apple has posted generative AI job listings at two locations in the city, one of which is so hidden that nearby residents weren't even aware the office existed.

The goal of this effort appears to be building a team capable of developing new AI models and products that can rival those of competitors like Microsoft and Google. To accomplish this mission, Apple is targeting industry experts, particularly those from Google.

Beyond hiring, Apple has also been making acquisitions, having acquired approximately 20 startups over the past decade. One of these was Perceptual Machines, run by Ruslan Salakhutdinov. Salakhutdinov told the publication that Apple is focused on "doing as much as possible on the device." This aligns with previously reported efforts by Apple to drive AI applications on-device.

As for why it took Apple so long to enter the generative AI space, Salakhutdinov said it was because Apple was concerned about the tendency of large language models (LLMs) to produce inaccurate or problematic responses. "I think it's just being a little more careful, because you can't release something you don't have complete control over," Salakhutdinov said.

Salakhutdinov's comment implies that when Apple does announce an AI product, it will be something the company has complete control over. It remains unclear exactly when the company will begin unveiling AI products, but we may get a glimpse as early as WWDC 2024.

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