according to BloombergOpenAI has hired Paul Meade, who is responsible for Apple Vision Pro and Apple’s smart glasses initiative. Here are the details.
OpenAI’s hunt for Apple’s designer continues
OpenAI last year announced it will join forces with Jony Ive and several LoveFrom designers to create a subsidiary that will release AI-first hardware.
Around the same time, news broke that OpenAI was poaching current and former Apple designers and engineerswho joined Yves’ team to develop an artificial intelligence machine. This includes Ive’s long-time collaborators Evans Hankey and Tang Ten, who led Apple’s design for 3 years after Ive left.
Although things are quiet on this front, Bloomberg OpenAI reports that Apple has hired Pal Meade, “a senior executive responsible for the Vision Pro headset and the company’s smart glasses.”
Here it is Bloomberg:
Vice President Paul Meade will leave Apple by next week and will then join OpenAI’s hardware division. Meade will work on OpenAI’s upcoming family of artificial intelligence-powered devices, the people said on condition of anonymity, discussing the unannounced personnel moves.
According to the report, Meade led the Apple Vision Pro hardware engineering team for seven years and also led efforts to develop Apple’s first smart glasses. Released in late 2027.
With Meade’s departure, many of his responsibilities as head of the Vision Products Group (VPG) will now fall to Fletcher Rothkopf, “his longtime deputy responsible for the product design function for the Vision Pro and smart glasses efforts.” Bloomberg he says.
Prior to leading VPG, Meade served as “principal iPad manager in 2010 before becoming head of iPhone program management in 2012” before joining VPG in 2017 and “taking over all hardware engineering in 2019,” the report notes.
Finally, the report notes that Meade’s decision to leave is the result of a personnel change from management. Appointing John Ternus as Apple’s next CEO:
Apple chip chief Johny Srouji replaced Ternus as chief hardware officer and in recent weeks has ushered in controversial changes to Apple’s hardware engineering division. This led to a number of vice presidents under Ternus being given new roles and some executives feeling they were being ousted.
With Srouji taking over all hardware, Meade and several other hardware leaders now report not directly to Srouji, but to Tom Marieb, the new vice president of hardware engineering. Marieb, in turn, reports to Srouji and demotes many of these managers down a level in the organization.
To read Bloomberg‘s full report, follow this link.
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