"Go back" to Google! Goodfellow, who left Apple, joins DeepMind to continue working remotely

A few days ago, the news of the resignation of former Apple machine learning director Ian Goodfellow due to "Apple refused to let employees continue to work remotely full-time" has been hotly debated. Recently, foreign media reported that Goodfellow has now "seamlessly" found a new unit that can continue to work remotely - DeepMind (a subsidiary of Alphabet), which has been acquired by Google.

• Related Reading:
  Ian Goodfellow, the father of GAN, resigned from Apple: "refused" to go back to the office | flexible working is the best policy https://segmentfault.com/a/1190000041816041

This time, Goodfellow joined DeepMind, which is a "return" to Google. You must know that as early as 2013, Goodfellow began to enter Google as an intern, and later became one of Google's senior artificial intelligence scientists, mainly engaged in security work until 2019.

Backed by Google: DeepMind has turned into a "gold-absorbing talent pool" in the AI industry

DeepMind is a machine learning company acquired by Google in 2014 for $600 million. In 2016, the AlphaGo program developed by DeepMind defeated the South Korean Go champion Lee Sedol "overnight", thus turning the company into an AI star enterprise.

Unfortunately, DeepMind has been "making ends meet" since it was acquired by Google, and has become a "money-burning machine" that has been heavily researched and developed. Fortunately, with the help of Google's parent company Alphabet, in 2020 DeepMind finally ended its seven-year continuous loss and ushered in its first profit in "history".

Although the financial report of that year did not mention too many details about the source of DeepMind's revenue, and the outside world is not clear about the business of its surge in revenue, the realization of profitability itself has brought new hope to the company and the entire artificial intelligence industry. isn't it?

As the company's development continues to improve, many top talents who have held important positions in the technology industry giants have also continued to flow into DeepMind in recent years.

Previously, this site has reported the news that Meta's top AI "veterans" have joined DeepMind after leaving (Related reading: More than 4 top AI "veterans" have resigned! Meta London branch "fallen" | metaverse metaverse stocks sold off? https ://segmentfault.com/a/1190000041654782 ).

In August last year, Marc'Aurelio Ranzato, the research scientist manager of the Meta AI department, joined DeepMind after leaving; Rob Fergus, the co-founder of the Meta artificial intelligence laboratory, also left in 2020, and later joined DeepMind and established a new DeepMi department.

This time, the addition of Goodfellow has also made DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company, more "talented". While it's unclear what role GoodfelloW will play at DeepMind, he'll be happier working remotely after leaving Apple anyway. Of course, this is a big loss for Apple.

Recap: Resigned from Apple for 'don't want to go back to the office'

The cause of the incident was reported earlier on this site - Goodfellow explained in an email to colleagues at Apple that he left the company because Apple planned to "return to the office" to work. "I firmly believe that greater flexibility is the best policy for my team," Goodfellow wrote.

Since April, Apple has required company employees to work in the office one day a week, increasing to two days a week in May. Apple aimed to have employees in the office three days a week starting May 23, but the plan was delayed due to rising infections across the United States. Currently, however, employees are required to work at least two days a week in Apple Park and offices.

In addition to Goodfellow, many Apple employees have also expressed strong opposition to the "return to the office" plan to work, even though Apple plans to allow them to stay at home two days a week when work hours return to normal.

In May, a group of employees calling themselves "Apple Together" wrote a letter to Apple's executive team claiming that the hybrid work plan "doesn't recognize flexible work, it's just out of fear."

Compared to other tech companies, such as Meta and Google, it has implemented more flexible work options, thus attracting Apple employees who are opposed to the office work policy. For example, while Google has asked employees to return to the office, it is in the process of granting exemptions for many who still want to work from home.

At present, the official information about DeepMind's employment of Goodfellow has not been made public, and DeepMind and Goodfellow himself have not responded to the matter. We will continue to pay attention to the follow-up progress. If you have any views on this incident, you are also welcome to exchange and interact in the comment area.

Reference link: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/05/17/ian-goodfellow-joins-deepmind-google/