META HIRES APPLE'S ROBOTICS AI LEAD AS THREE MORE SIRI RESEARCHERS EXIT CUPERTINO

Meta has recruited Ruslan Salakhutdinov, Apple's director of robotics Al, marking another high-profile defection from Cupertino as the company accelerates its own push into advanced artificial intelligence.

- 

At the same time, three senior researchers working on Apple's Siri voice assistant have also departed, further highlighting Apple's challenges in retaining top Al talent as rivals invest aggressively in next-generation systems.

META'S STRATEGIC HIRE

Salakhutdinov, a well-known figure in machine learning, previously headed Apple’s robotics and Al group, where he focused on autonomous systems, multimodal learning, and advanced reinforcement models. Before joining Apple, he was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and served briefly as director of Al research at Apple under John Giannandrea.

At Meta, Salakhutdinov is expected to lead projects in embodied Al and robotics applications tied to the company’s long-term metaverse and Al agent ambitions. Sources close to Meta said his expertise in combining vision, planning, and control systems could feed into both AR/VR devices and real-world robotics prototypes, areas CEO Mark Zuckerberg has framed as central to the company’s future.