A former Apple executive who resigned over the company's strict return-to-work policy is joining Google just weeks later, according to a report.
See also: Apple: Return to the office in the Bay Area delayed
Ian Goodfellow – who worked as Apple’s director of machine learning until he resigned in early May – is joining DeepMind as a partner, Bloomberg reported.
DeepMind uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve Google products.
The news comes as Apple wants nearly all corporate employees to return to the office for three days a week, although the company currently only requires two days a week amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Google, meanwhile, wants many employees to return for three days a week, but is letting some employees work fully remotely — a policy that apparently helped attract Goodfellow.
When Goodfellow announced his departure from Apple, he told colleagues in a farewell note that CEO Tim Cook to return to the office had driven him away.
See also: Apple and Google will remove abandoned and outdated apps
“I strongly believe that more flexibility would be the best policy for my team,” Goodfellow said, according to Verge reporter Zoe Schiffer.
Before being hired by Apple in 2019, the engineer worked for Google, where he was responsible for machine learning and artificial intelligence projects. He was known as the “father of general adversarial networks, or GANs,” a technology used to create multimedia content — including “deepfakes.”
Apple employees on corporate gossip site Blind have been criticizing the company's return-to-the-office policy for months, with one speculating after Goodfellow's departure that Tim Cook would soon demand the five-day in-person week.
According to talent technology director Michael Solomon, most bosses prefer employees who are willing to return to the office – but highly sought-after candidates like Goodfellow have the power to demand flexibility.
Apple and Google have some of the strictest return-to-the-office policies out of Big Tech.
See also: Apple Podcasts: Introducing new tools and updates
Facebook and Instagram parent Meta is letting many employees work remotely forever, with the warning that those leaving high-cost cities like New York and San Francisco for cheaper areas may have to take pay cuts .
Source of information: nypost.com
