Ian Goodfellow, Apple's director of ML, is leaving due to its return to work policy, saying in a note that “more flexibility would have been the best policy”
Ian Goodfellow, Apple's director of machine learning, is leaving the company due to its return to work policy. In a note to staff, he said “I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team.” He was likely the company's most cited ML expert.
@zoeschifferZoë Schiffer
Context & Ripple Effects
Goodfellow joined Apple from Google in 2019 as a director after becoming known for generative adversarial networks. His departure turns Apple’s return-to-office policy into a retention issue for a highly visible machine-learning leader.
Apple loses its director of machine learning after he explicitly objected to the company’s flexibility policy, while Goodfellow becomes available to rival AI organizations.
Apple’s ML team loses a prominent internal leader whose stature had helped validate the company’s 2019 AI hiring push.
Second-order effects
Alphabet’s DeepMind gains a researcher Apple recruited from Google, making workplace flexibility part of the contest for senior AI talent between the two companies.
Apple’s return-to-office policy becomes a more consequential retention variable for specialized ML staff, rather than solely a general workplace rule.
Third-order effects
If senior researchers continue to treat flexibility as a condition of employment, AI organizations with more accommodating work models can strengthen their talent moats without competing only on research roles or compensation.
The episode points to frontier-AI hiring becoming more institutionally competitive: corporate workplace governance can shape which labs accumulate experienced research leadership.
The trend: Frontier AI talent competition is expanding beyond research mandates to include the workplace policies that determine whether senior leaders stay or move to rival labs.
New Apple hires used to be enculturated by the veterans on the team. But over the last decade, hiring scale made that enormously difficult. Remote made it impossible. Now Apple is left with a Hobson's choice — loss either way, but to try and preserve or adapt to a new future http…
I have a real hard time with this. Companies had plenty of remote workers before—or did we all forget satellite offices existed? I get that culture in an office is different than wfh, but the pearl clutching is exhausting. This isn't about lost culture. It's about adaptability. h…
No doubt the future will be remote. Hybrid at best. Companies should invest in adapting rather than brute forcing. Adapt or die. https://twitter.com/...
I was going to make a joke but @goodfellow_ian's book on deep learning was the book that made me finally “get it”. I owe so much to that book and Ian, he can do whatever the fuck he wants as far as I am concerned. https://twitter.com/...
Wow. A Director of Machine learning is a steep price to pay to get people to come into a physical office they don't want to be in. https://twitter.com/...
Managers and execs are lobbying internally for their companies to revert RTO policies. Once those efforts fail, they'll leave. I'd expect many more departures like this in comapanies that return to the office. https://twitter.com/...
This is actually quite simple. The best technical talent can work anywhere they want and if they don't want to relocate, they won't https://twitter.com/...
Brain drain was a problem before. Now every high profile person out the door the question is: would they have stayed for just a little more flexibility? And of course for every high profile departure, there's many more that you don't notice until regular churn becomes a trend. ht…
Tim Apple is going for it WRT “back to the office” in a down market like this they may WANT 5-15% of their employees resigning — let's him avoid layoffs while doing what most CEOs consider a loyalty test https://twitter.com/...
Apple exec says he's leaving the company due to its RTO demands. Wonder who else is doing the same. I'd assume exceptions would be made for higher ups. https://twitter.com/...
Apple has decided it would rather lose senior talent than allow employees to work from home. The talent gap between remote friendly companies and traditionalists is going to meaningful over the next few years. Similar to impact of compensation on talent tiers in tech. https://twi…
It is the irony of this universe that a company built on making tools that allow you to be highly productive anyplace on Earth, Apple is now being managed by people that lost their way. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak designed the personal computer precisely for this freedom. https:…
All these big companies are going to realize the way to compete for top talent is remote work. It's not ping pong tables and kegs anymore. 🤮 https://twitter.com/...
Some very smart people are hesitant to go back to the office. I wonder why. Goodfellow wrote one of the best textbooks on machine learning out there; this is a huge loss for Apple and any company looking to retain top talent should learn from this. https://www.deeplearningbook.or…
Disappointing that @apple won't give high-level employees autonomy over whether or not their teams work remotely. These policies will lead to a massive brain drain. (1/6) https://twitter.com/...
The exodus continues. At a time that Apple needs all the AI help they can get, their mediocre return to the office work policy just cost them top talent. https://twitter.com/...
BTW, I'm 100% open to being wrong. I just haven't seen any compelling data backing up why WFH is bad. Meanwhile, Apple's still growing, reporting record profits, REVITALIZED Mac sales, etc etc etc. Are all companies doing that well? No. But it seems wfh is at worst a wash.