X

Apple nabs one of Google's top AI scientists

Ian Goodfellow is known as the father of GANs, tech that's been used to create deepfakes.

Marrian Zhou Staff Reporter
Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.
See full bio
Marrian Zhou
New Apple Store Opens At The Champs Elysee In Paris

 

 Getty Images

One of Google's top AI scientists has jumped to Apple .

Ian Goodfellow, one of Google's top minds for artificial intelligence developments, in March joined Apple as a director of Machine Learning in the Special Projects Group, according to his LinkedIn profile. CNBC earlier spotted the move.

Goodfellow is considered the father of an AI technology called generative adversarial networks, or GANs, according to CNBC. The tech has been used to generate deepfakes, video forgeries that make people appear to be doing or saying things they never did.

Neither Google nor Apple immediately responded to requests for comment. Goodfellow didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

This comes as tech companies including Apple, Google and Amazon have been delving into AI technologies. In July, Google's longtime head of AI, John Giannandrea, joined Apple to work on the company's Siri voice assistant.

Google's AI ambitions have come under scrutiny. Critics demanded that the company's newly announced AI ethics council drop its member Kay Cole James for being "anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-immigrant." On Thursday, Google shuttered the AI ethics council.