Name: Apple mass exodus: Why top talent is saying iQuit
Uploaded: 2025-12-12T03:04:13.182Z
Duration: 3 min 56 s
Description: In the past few months, Apple has lost several key executives and there’s talk that long-time CEO Tim Cook could be getting ready to step down. For The National, CBC’s Ashley Fraser breaks down what’s behind the departures and why some say the company’s AI program could be to blame.

In the past few months, Apple has lost several key executives and there’s talk that long-time CEO Tim Cook could be getting ready to step down. For The National, CBC’s Ashley Fraser breaks down what’s behind the departures and why some say the company’s AI program could be to blame.

California

Apple has recently experienced a series of high-profile departures among its top executives and AI leaders, with some moving to competitors such as Meta and OpenAI. The exits include key designers and figures responsible for major product lines, raising concerns among industry experts about a potential long-term brain drain at the company.

Analysts point to Apple's strict privacy policies and perceived lack of ambition in AI innovation as contributing factors. Despite these challenges, experts agree that Apple continues to hold significant market power, though the company's future direction in the rapidly evolving AI landscape remains uncertain. Apple did not provide a comment regarding the recent departures.

Apple mass exodus: Why top talent is saying iQuit

So some of Apple's top talent are leaving, and people are calling it a mass exodus. So why are they leaving? In just this month alone, Apple announced the retirement of several key executives. Plus, Alan Dye, the guy behind How Your iPhone Looks, he's left for Meta. Not to mention in July, their chief operating officer retired. And the CEO, Tim Cook, there's talks he's getting ready to leave too. That's not even counting everyone else down the chain. In recent weeks, key designers and other key AI leaders at Apple have either retired or left for Meta, open AI or other AI start-ups. The idea that you're going to work on that and come to market with something and, like, do what Chat GPT did, which was get hundreds of millions of users within months. I mean, that's wildly lucrative for starters, but it's just alluring. And these departures have some tech experts raising alarm bells, even if some of these moves are just retirements. Rolf Winkler, tech reporter for The Wall Street Journal, describes some of these moves as a long-term brain drain. And other tech experts say Apple is falling behind its competitors in the AI race. So are people leaving because of that? If you're an AI researcher at Google or open AI, you have immense computing resources to go build the thing you want to build. You don't have that at Apple. That's because Apple has a strict privacy policy when it comes to user data. So as much data as is on your phone, which Apple could use to train potentially very sophisticated AI models, they're not really doing that because they don't give their own people unfettered access to your data. That can lead to frustrations internally, and you combine that with the gigantic pay packages that some of these places are offering, plus the opportunity to be at the forefront of AI, and, you know, the grass is greener. Plus, this author and Apple expert, Patrick McGee, says Apple isn't creating the game-changing products it once was. It's not about AI alone. It's just about Apple not being the company that is revolutionising products. Like, they can iterate a product like nobody's business, but if you want to work on the absolute frontier, there's companies that are just more ambitious. So if it doesn't reinvent the wheel, will it face the fate of BlackBerry when it failed to catch up to the iPhone? Apple is leaving itself open, but it's going to be...it's quite a hill to climb to displace the iPhone. But that race for AI supremacy is still heating up, and who might just come up on top is still up for grabs. For example, OpenAI's Sam Altman. He announced earlier this year he's working with Apple's former head of design, Johnny Ive, who left in 2019 to create a new AI device. Then this month, Alan Dye, who took over some of Ive's responsibilities, said he's off to Meta to help them create AI products. I know people always want to think that Apple is late to the party, but, you know, then the party really gets started. It's hard to be confident that Apple's about to do what they're famous for because so many people are leaving AI and they're going to things like the superintelligence unit at Meta. But this Apple historian says Apple has been careful in its approach to AI. They've been making these steady moves in privacy and Apple intelligence that others are falling over on. So I think actually Apple's going to come up from behind and others will join in with it. I have the impression that with Meta, it's more trying to just buy up talent in the hope that something will happen. So despite these departures, all the experts we spoke to say Apple still holds immense power. And whether this is the first sign of decline or on the brink of the next best thing remains to be seen. We reached out to Apple about these departures, but we did not receive a response by our deadline. I mean, ask yourselves out there, is there anything you're intending to buy anytime soon to replace your iPhone?

For the first time, Amnesty International has accused Hamas and its allies of committing crimes against humanity, following an investigation into the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel. The organization found that 1,221 people were killed and said the mass killing of civilians amounted to extermination.

Jerusalem

Middle East Conflict

Amnesty accuses Hamas of 'crimes against humanity' for Oct. 7 attack

The “Architects of AI” were named Time's person of the year Thursday, with the magazine citing 2025 as when the potential of artificial intelligence “roared into view” with no turning back.

Rise of AI

Time magazine names 'Architects of AI' as person of the year for 2025

Message board website Reddit filed a lawsuit on Friday (December 12) asking Australia's High Court to overturn the country's social media ban for people under 16 as well as its inclusion in it, calling the law an infringement of free political expression.

Council of the City of Sydney

Reddit sues to overturn Australian social media ban

As tensions rise with Venezuela, U.S. President Donald Trump said land operations could start "pretty soon." Sources tell CBS News the administration is also planning more tanker seizures.

Washington

Trump says Venezuela land operations could begin 'pretty soon'

One day after capturing an oil tanker off Venezuela's coast, the U.S. has sanctioned three of Nicolas Maduro's nephews, along with six other oil tankers.

Trump ramps up pressure on Maduro with new sanctions

The EU has decided to keep the assets of the Russian Central Bank immobilised for the foreseeable future. The ban, which is based on a provision for economic emergencies, pushes back against external attempts to release the €210 billion in assets before Ukraine is compensated.

Moscow

Ukraine Invasion

EU triggers emergency clause to indefinitely immobilise Russian assets

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she planned to take her award back to Venezuela, but declined to say when she would return to her home country after leaving in great secrecy to receive the honor.

Caracas

Nobel peace laureate Machado vows to take award home to Venezuela

Japanese authorities are assessing damage after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck northern Japan, followed by multiple aftershocks. In response, officials have issued a warning about the possibility of a megaquake, defined as a magnitude 8.0 or higher event.

Tokyo

Japan alerts citizens about possible megaquake

A Maryland judge has ordered the Trump administration to immediately release Kilmar Abrego Garcia from ICE custody. Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported to El Salvador and was later detained for potential deportation to another country.

Judge orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia's immediate release from ICE custody

About 500,000 people are fleeing renewed clashes on the Thailand-Cambodia border. Over a dozen were killed as fighting shatters a US-Malaysia-brokered peace deal amid a decades-old temple land dispute.

Samraong

Half a million flee as Thailand-Cambodia border clashes escalate

The U.S. has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, ratcheting up tensions with Caracas.

Trump confirms seizing of Venezuelan oil tanker

The U.S. House has approved a bill to end all Caesar Act sanctions on Syria, sparking cautious optimism in Damascus as the measure moves closer to becoming law.

U.S. House votes to lift Caesar Act sanctions on Syria

Myanmar's military bombs a hospital in western Rakhine state, at least 31 people are killed and dozens injured.

Rakhine

Air strike in Myanmar killed at least 31 people, dozens injured

The U.S. military seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the ship had been used to violate sanctions on oil from Venezuela and Iran.

U.S. seizes oil tanker off Venezuela coast

The daughter of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her mother's behalf in Oslo, Norway. Machado, who lives in hiding in Venezuela, is set to make an address on Thursday.

Oslo

Venezuela's Machado awarded Nobel Peace Prize in absentia

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is commenting on potential elections in Ukraine under certain conditions. Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst joins CBS News with more on the war against Russia.

Kyiv

Zelenskyy prepared to hold elections after Trump questions motive

A renewed outbreak of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia has derailed a US-brokered peace agreement, with cross-border shelling and air raids forcing more than half a million civilians to flee their homes.

Bangkok

Border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia flares up again

U.S. immigration agents used pepper spray against protesters in Minneapolis on Tuesday as residents blocked the officers’ vehicles and forced them to leave the area.

Minneapolis

Minneapolis protests erupt over ICE operation targeting Somalis

In Australia, millions of kids' social media profiles are going dark, as the country's new social media ban takes effect for anyone under 16. Jo Ling Kent reports.

Canberra

Australia's social media ban takes effect for kids under 16

President Trump, in recent months, has dismissed concerns about affordability, but this evening, in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, he is focusing on the crisis and touting his administration's efforts to lower the cost of living. Nancy Cordes has more.

Pennsylvania

Trump tries to flip the script on affordability

Dozens of protesters blocked a highway near Tel Aviv to demonstrate against moves by the Israeli government to force some ultra-Orthodox Jews into mandatory military service, something they are currently exempt from so they can study the Torah full time.

Tel Aviv-Yafo

Bill over ultra-Orthodox military conscription sparks protests in Israel

President Trump has told Politico that Nicolas Maduro's "days are numbered" in Venezuela. Political strategists Kevin Sheridan and Hyma Moore join with analysis.

Trump says Maduro’s “days are numbered”

The FBI has released a new photo of former Olympian Ryan Wedding, whom the bureau’s director has described as a “modern day iteration of Pablo Escobar.” The ex-skier and snowboarder remains at large as agents continue their search.

FBI releases new photo of alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Pope Leo XIV and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Tuesday (December 9), meanwhile voicing his refusal to surrender territory to Moscow despite pressure from Washington for territorial concessions.

Rome

Zelenskyy seeks backing from Pope Leo XIV, Italian PM Meloni

A federal judge said Tuesday (December 9) that the Department of Justice can unseal the Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking case records. CBS News' Scott MacFarlane has more details.

Judge says DOJ can unseal Ghislaine Maxwell trafficking case records

Prosecutors on Monday (December 8) released new evidence seized from Luigi Mangione on the day of his arrest. He is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson a year ago and has pleaded not guilty.

Manhattan

New evidence introduced in Luigi Mangione case

The EU antitrust enforcer has opened an investigation into the U.S. tech giant over its use of online content to power its AI services, a move that threatens to ratchet up transatlantic relations.

Brussels

EU Commission opens probe into Google over AI

The U.S. government said the approval, which comes in exchange for a 25% surcharge, would also be available to other chipmakers like Intel and AMD.

Trump gives Nvidia green light to sell H200 chips to China

Ukraine is set to present a revised peace plan to the United States on Tuesday following President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s talks in London with the leaders of France, Germany, and Britain.

London

Ukraine to share revised peace plan with U.S., Zelenskiy says

The International Criminal Court Tuesday handed down a sentence of 20 years to a Sudanese militia leader for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country's civil war two decades ago.

Breakdown