Apple's AI Exodus Continues as Former Siri Chief Departs [Report]

Robby Walker, one of Apple's most senior artificial intelligence executives, is leaving the company. Walker, a direct report to AI chief John Giannandrea, is planning to depart next month, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

The move comes after Walker's responsibilities were shifted earlier this year. He was previously in charge of Siri, but oversight of the voice assistant was moved to software chief Craig Federighi after promised updates were publicly postponed. More recently, Walker has been a key executive on a new AI-powered web search system, an effort to build a competitor to services like Perplexity and ChatGPT. That project is being worked on by a secret new team inside Apple known as Answers, Knowledge and Information (AKI).

Walker's exit adds to a growing number of high-profile departures from Apple's AI division. Ruoming Pang, who led the AI models team, left for Meta Platforms, and many of his top engineers and researchers followed. Last month, Frank Chu, another senior executive working on search, also left for the social media giant.


The report notes that in an internal meeting in March, Walker acknowledged the delays to Siri's features were embarrassing but defended the team's work, comparing it to swimming hundreds of miles but still not reaching Hawaii. Apple has since set a new 2026 target for the delayed Siri features.

A spokesperson for Apple declined to comment on the report.

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