Robby Walker, the senior AI executive who previously oversaw Siri, is departing the iPhone maker.
Robby Walker, one of Apple's most senior artificial intelligence executives, is leaving the company. Walker currently serves as senior director of Apple's Answers, Information, and Knowledge team.
Walker previously oversaw Siri development until earlier this year. That responsibility, however, has since been shifted to Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of engineering.
The transition came shortly after the company informed customers that the "new and improved Siri" would be delayed for an indeterminate amount of time. Later, it was learned that Walker may have been a key reason for the delay.
Walker's new role has him working on Apple's yet-unannounced AI- powered web search system, designed to compete with Perplexity and ChatGPT. According to Bloomberg the Answers project remains in development and is scheduled to launch in 2026.
Sources told Bloomberg that Walker is set to depart the company in October. There is no word on where the executive is headed at this time.
Walker's departure follows a string of senior exits from Apple's AI division. Many of the departures have been to Meta, who has seemingly been targeting high-profile AI teams at companies like Apple and OpenAI.
Ruoming Pang left Apple after being lured by Meta's $200 million compensation package, taking engineers with him. Frank Chu, who formerly served as Apple's director of engineering, also joined Meta in September.
