Apple loses another key employee of his AI unit

Apple has lost the key part of its artificial intelligence teamThe Robbie Walker field, which worked in the Siri team before restructuring, will leave the company next month. Walker participated not only in the development of a new version of the Apple Intelligence assistant, but also in the search engine controlled by AI.

As reported BloombergIN Robbie Walker will leave his position to the senior leader of AI In Apple since October. News fall as a jug of cold water for a company that seeks to restore lost land in front of Google and Openai in the career of artificial intelligence. Walker is a veteran who worked with John Jannandrea in the team of Siri to the defeat that occurred at the beginning of the year.

After the restructuring of the artificial intelligence team, Robbie Walker found a new house in another company. Apple designated it like Director of the response, information and knowledge teamThe appointment of liability for the development of a web search system with AI. This project, internally known as answers to world knowledge, will compete with bewilderment and ChatGPT.

In a recent report, it is mentioned that it is Search system with AI He will have his own interface and will be multimodal. Users can use the text, video, video and even local points of interest to viewing. The engineers responsible for the Walker are working to provide him with functions that we already find in Google, such as artificial intelligence reviews that generate a resume with artificial intelligence.

Robbie Walker, the head of the new search engine with artificial intelligence Apple, will soon leave the company

Although the initial plan is to integrate it with the new Siri with Apple Intelligence, Apple will strive to take it to other applications of its ecosystem, such as Safari or Spotlight. Sources indicated that the search engine will debut in iOS 26.4, an update that will appear in the period from March to April 2026. The departure of Robbie Walker can change Cupertino’s plans and postpone the launch of this project.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Walker joined Apple as a director in October 2013. At the end of 2020, he took on the role of the senior director in the Siri team and headed various initiatives before becoming the head of the answers, knowledge and information in April 2025.

Report about Bloomberg Indicates it Robbie Walker reacted directly to John JannandreaDirector of AI in Apple before restructuring. Before changing the role in the company, Walker recognized the delays in the development of Siri and compared the efforts of the team with the “Swimming of Hundreds of kilometers”, but not reaching Hawaii. Although his departure was not confirmed by Apple, it is expected that he will happen in the coming weeks.

The game of Robbie Walker Adds a dozen employees in the field of artificial intelligence who refused AppleThe field among the most famous is the leader of the team of fundamental models, Ruming Pang, who joined the finish line in July this year. Jiang Zhang, chief researcher in robotics, and Frank Chu, director of engineering equipment in the Pan team, also left with Mark Zuckerberg.