Apple loses director of machine learning over its office return policy

A group of Apple employees wrote an open letter last week complaining about the company's hybrid work-from- home policy, which requires employees to be at the office three days a week starting May 23rd. The director of machine learning for Apple, Ian Goodfellow, has left the company. Goodfellow may have been the company's most cited machine learning expert.

A group of Apple staffers called Apple Together were opposed to the return-to-office strategy. Thanks to apps like Slack, in-person collaboration is not often needed. They said that Apple's office structure makes it difficult to have in-person work when people are bumping into each other.

It was noted that a daily commute is a huge waste of time as well as both mental and physical resources, and that the policy will lead to a more male-dominated, more able-bodied population.

The group cited Apple's hypocrisy in the way it markets its products. How can our customers take that seriously? The letter states that how can we understand what problems of remote work need solving in our products if we don't live it?

Apple, which brought in a Q3 record $97.3 billion last quarter, has been facing employee discontent. Apple Store employees are quietly attempting to unionize, while it is facing an NLRB complaint over hostile working conditions.