Abidur Chowdhury, a former designer at Apple who worked on the iPhone Air, is becoming the head of design at AI startup Hark. This move is part of Hark's strategy to attract top talent from major tech companies like Google and Meta.

Abidur Chowdhury, the industrial designer behind the iPhone Air, has left Apple to work at Hark, a new AI startup. Hark aims to create "human-centric" AI and has already hired around 30 engineers from major tech companies. The startup recently secured $100 million in funding from CEO Brett Adcock.

Apple has purchased the Israeli AI startup Q.ai for nearly $2 billion to enhance its audio technology, particularly in interpreting whispered speech and improving sound quality in noisy settings. This marks Apple's second-largest acquisition, following its purchase of Beats Electronics in 2014. The Q.ai team, including CEO Aviad Maizels, will join Apple as part of the deal.

Apple executives are reportedly in discussions about acquiring the AI startup Perplexity to enhance their artificial intelligence capabilities. The potential acquisition aligns with Apple's strategy to bolster its presence in the AI space amidst growing competition.