AI Daily: Apple AI researcher for robotics departs for Meta

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

DEPARTING FOR META: Apple’s (AAPL) lead AI researcher for robotics, Jian Zhang, has left the company to join Meta’s (META) competing effort, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. Three more AI researchers, John Peebles, Nan Du and Zhao Meng, are leaving Apple’s in-house large language models team to join other companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic PBC, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Apple Foundation Models team has lost roughly 10 members, including its chief, in recent weeks, Gurman writes.

ONEGOV AGREEMENT: The U.S. General Services Administration announced a OneGov agreement with ServiceNow (NOW) to power AI-first modernization for a new era of government. The ServiceNow AI Platform could boost workflow efficiencies by up to 30% based on projections-using AI to streamline a wide range of business processes.

The agreement will streamline agentic transformation through a simplified licensing model for eligible federal customers, including discounts of up to 70% off the list price on upgrades to a new Information Technology Service Management Pro and ITSM Pro Plus bundle. ServiceNow is also offering a 40% discount off the list price on upgrades to a standalone version of ITSM Pro, providing flexibility for agencies seeking core IT service management capabilities with intelligent automation features such as predictive analytics, process mining, and workforce optimization.

SHIFT TO AI PLATFORM: ImmunoPrecise Antibodies (IPA) announced a unification under a single corporate brand, MindWalk, and a change of its Nasdaq ticker symbol to “HYFT”. The company stated the new identity conveys its evolution into a Bio-Native AI platform business. “The company is expanding beyond specialized wet-lab services to commercialize an intelligence-platform model, launching SaaS offerings and supporting scalable partnerships,” it stated.