Apple Creates Secret AI Lab, Includes Ex-Google Engineers

Morrissey Technology – Apple is suspected of poaching a number of artificial intelligence (AI) experts from Google and establishing an AI laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland. This research facility aims to research and produce new AI-based products and also create machine learning models. The alleged hijacking of a number of AI experts from Google comes from an analysis conducted by the Financial Times.

The Financial Times analyzed hundreds of job vacancies, profiles on LinkedIn, and learned a number of things over the past few years. From there they suspect that Apple has recruited at least 36 AI experts from Google, starting with John Giannandrea in 2018, who is now the boss of Apple’s AI division, specifically as SVP Machine Learning and AI Strategy.

Then according to professor Luc Van Gool from ETH Zurich, Apple has opened a research and development lab in Zurich called Vision Lab. The research facility employs experts from two local startups that have been acquired by Apple, namely FaceShift and Fashwell. FaceShift, a motion capture startup, was acquired by Apple in 2015 and Fashwell, an AI-based visual search startup, was acquired in 2019.

Apple even has two recruiting offices in Zurich, and according to the Financial Times FOR4D, one of the offices looks so closed off that even people working nearby don’t realize it’s an Apple office. Apple declined to comment on the existence of these secret offices and laboratories.

So far the team at Vision Lab has produced a number of research results related to generative AI, which focuses on models for using text and image input to produce accurate answers. For example, a user can ask where to buy a jacket whose image was taken using a cellphone camera. The machine learning model can provide answers in the form of a list of shops that sell the jacket.

Until now, Apple has not made much noise regarding this research, and is even considered to be late in entering the AI ​​sector. This is because other large technology companies such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and others have released various AI-based products over the past few years.