In recent years, Apple has reportedly managed to attract at least 36 professionals from Google with experience in artificial intelligence, according to an analysis of LinkedIn profiles conducted by Financial Times. Additionally, six of these former Google employees are listed as authors of an Apple research paper on multimodal language models, published last month.
Business Insider highlights that nine out of the 31 authors of the document had Google as their latest employer on LinkedIn, while two came from Microsoft. This talent migration is happening amidst intense competition among tech giants to strengthen their AI teams.
On the other hand, Google has managed to attract professionals like Logan Kilpatrick, who previously worked at OpenAI. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has also tried to recruit AI researchers from Google, sending them personal emails. In addition, Microsoft hired Jason Taylor last week, a former Meta executive, to integrate him into their artificial intelligence supercomputing team as Corporate Vice President and Deputy Chief Technology Officer.
And this would only be the beginning. This month, Microsoft announced its plans to establish an AI hub in London, which would directly compete with Google DeepMind, and aims to hire “exceptional individuals” in the near future.
The competition is not limited only to big companies, as even startups want to hire recognized professionals in the field of AI to keep growing.
Mustafa Suleyman, the new CEO of Microsoft AI, described the current landscape as “hypercompetitive” at both ends of the business spectrum: “In small startups, everyone is very creative. And at the larger end, everyone competes fiercely.” This environment, Suleyman claims in an interview with Business Insider, makes this a “fiercely competitive” time to work in the technology industry.
The war for talent in artificial intelligence is a reflection of the strategic importance that companies assign to this area and the need to have the best professionals to stay at the forefront in a constantly evolving market.