Apple Vision Pro exec is reportedly leaving for OpenAI

Paul Meade, Apple’s vice president responsible for the Vision Pro headset, is leaving the company to join the hardware team at OpenAI. According to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg.

Meade also reportedly led the development of AI-powered smart glasses Apple plans to launch next year. The expensive Vision Pro glasses haven’t been a hit, but Apple is hoping its affordable smart glasses will be a hit. Helping it compete with Meta wearables.

Gorman portrays this departure as a byproduct of John Ternos’ impending promotion to CEO of Appleand Ternus’ decision to change its hardware engineering team, which made some of the company’s vice presidents feel like they had been demoted.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is already working with Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief design officer, on an AI-powered device, which CEO Sam Altman has claimed will be ready. More peace and quiet than iPhonealthough reports last fall indicated that the company was Struggling to get the details right.

TechCrunch has reached out to Apple and OpenAI for comment.