Apple director of machine learning departs over return to in-person work policy

Apple was subject to a lot of criticism from its employees regarding the recent move back to in-person employment. A number of reports have indicated some employees have even departed the company over the policies, opting for a workplace that is more accepting of remote work.

Now, The Verge’s Zoe Schiffer reports that Ian Goodfellow, Apple’s director of machine learning, has departed the company over its return to work policy.

Apple in-person work policy leads to high-profile departure

Apple poached Goodfellow from Google back in 2019 to join its “Special Projects Group” as the director of machine learning. Goodfellow spent more than six years as Google, starting as a software engineering intern before being a “Senior Staff Research Scientist” at the time of his departure to Apple in March of 2019.

Goodfellow has been called “the father in general adversarial network, or GANs.” It can be used to generate fake media content. This is something that has grown increasingly significant over the past few years.

Just three years after he joined Apple, however, Goodfellow is now departing the company over its return to work policy. In a memo to staff, Goodfellow wrote: “I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team.”

Apple employees started returning to in-person work on April 11 following a two-year stint of remote work brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Apple is taking a phased approach to its return to work plan. The company initially required that employees work at least one day per semaine in the office. On May 4, the company ramped that up to two days per week in the office.

Starting on May 23, employees will need to be in the office three days per week. This is the start of Apple’s so-called “hybrid” work plan, which will require employees to work from the office on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday every week.

Goodfellow’s former employer Google mandated that some teams return to in-person work starting last month, but many employees are able to permanently work from home. Apple apparently allows managers flexibility and can adapt policies to their own teams. This, however, doesn’t appear to have been the case for Goodfellow’s team.

While Apple has had a few employees leave the company due to its insistent on in-person work practices, Goodfellow’s resignation is the most prominent case that has been publicly reported. Whether or not we hear of any other higher-profile departures remains to be seen.