FirstFT: Apple poaches Google AI experts and builds secretive Zurich lab

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Good morning. We have an exclusive story about the latest phase in Big Tech’s race to develop artificial intelligence products.

A Financial Times analysis of hundreds of LinkedIn profiles as well as public job postings and research papers reveals that Apple has poached dozens of staff from Google in recent years to expand its global AI and Machine Learning team. The iPhone maker has attracted at least 36 specialists from its rival since it hired John Giannandrea to be its top AI executive in 2018.

Apple has also created a secretive European laboratory in Zurich. Professor Luc Van Gool from Swiss university ETH Zurich said Apple’s acquisitions of two local AI start-ups — virtual reality group FaceShift and image recognition company Fashwell — led Apple to build a research laboratory, known as its “Vision Lab”, in the city.

The company has been advertising jobs in generative AI across two locations in Zurich, one of which has a particularly low profile. A neighbour told the FT they were not even aware of the office’s existence. Michael Acton has more details about the tech giant’s latest plans to battle rivals in the AI arena.

• AI safety: Policymakers need to pay more attention to the technology’s use in armed conflict and potential for human rights abuses on the battlefield, writes Marietje Schaake, special adviser to the European Commission.

• AI and media: The FT has struck a deal with OpenAI to train models on the publisher’s archived content, in the latest agreement between the Microsoft-backed start-up and a global news publisher.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the EU have first-quarter gross domestic product estimates, while France, Italy and the EU also have flash April inflation data. Germany publishes March labour market figures, and the UK has public debt and deficit estimates for the December quarter.

• Post-Brexit controls: Physical border checks start for certain goods entering the UK from the EU, with small businesses importing food or plants set to face monthly charges running into tens of thousands of pounds.

• Companies: Anglo American holds its annual meeting after rebuffing BHP’s takeover attempt. Industry watchers are speculating about other possible bidders, chief among them Glencore, which reports first-quarter production today. Adidas, Air France-KLM, Banco Santander, Hargreaves Lansdown, Lufthansa, Mercedes-Benz, St James’s Place, Thales Group and Volkswagen are among others reporting.

Five more top stories

1. HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn is retiring, the bank announced today. The bank’s board said it had begun a formal process to find a successor, considering internal and external candidates, and thanked him for his “significant contribution” to the group over a “long and distinguished” 37-year career at the bank. Here’s more on Quinn’s future plans.

2. The head of Ukraine’s national energy company has called on EU countries to help protect its natural gas storage facilities from Russian attacks so they can keep contributing to lower prices across the continent. Oleksiy Chernyshov, chief executive of state-run Naftogaz, said it was in the bloc’s interest to do so given that Ukraine’s gas infrastructure was “well integrated” into Europe’s energy system. Read his full interview with the FT.

3. Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster’s property company, plans to more than double its flexible office footprint to 300,000 sq ft, equivalent to about a fifth of its UK office portfolio. The group, which owns large parts of London’s Mayfair and Belgravia, has tried to push into flexible workspaces several times over the past two decades, its chief executive said. Here’s why the company is taking a big bet on hybrid work.

4. Europe’s funds industry body has backed a French proposal for a few countries to forge ahead with a capital markets union. The president of the European Fund and Asset Management Association, which represents the region’s €28.5tn investment management sector, said further delays and disagreement on reform increased the risk of losing more companies and investment to the US. Here’s more from Sandro Pierri’s remarks to the FT.

• Related: A focus on regulation is “driving Europe to irrelevance”, the chief of Ericsson told the FT, warning that the region’s competitiveness was being undermined and calling for changes to antitrust policy.

5. Larry Ellison-backed Skydance has sweetened its offer to take control of Paramount by injecting extra cash to win support for a complex merger that has frustrated investors and led to the departure of the Hollywood group’s chief executive, Bob Bakish. The Skydance offer includes about $2bn to take control of National Amusements, the Shari Redstone-controlled group that holds nearly 80 per cent of Paramount’s voting shares. Read the full story.

The Big Read

Northern Ireland is stuck in a doom loop of how to deal with the legacy of its past. Many relatives of the more than 3,600 people killed in “the Troubles” are still searching for answers and battling for justice. But things will change dramatically when new UK legislation takes effect tomorrow, halting investigations and placing them under a new official body. Critics say the law is a callous attempt to spare the UK government from scrutiny and shield British soldiers and agents — some of whom were involved in killings during the three decades-long conflict.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Scottish politics: Humza Yousaf’s resignation as first minister has renewed chaos at the Scottish National party and provided Labour with an opening at the general election.

• Karina Milei: The sister of Argentina’s president, who has dubbed her “the boss”, is causing unease among politicians and business leaders as her power grows.

• UK public spending: Money has too often been squandered by the government not because of corruption but because of groupthink, writes MP Meg Hillier, chair of the parliament’s public accounts committee.

• Germany’s ‘Trojan horse’: As the far-right Alternative for Germany party battles claims that it has been infiltrated by foreign spies, critics say its appeal to patriotism has never seemed less credible.

Chart of the day

Prices of non-food items in UK supermarkets have fallen year on year for the first time since 2021, taking overall shop inflation below 1 per cent, according to industry data that will come as a relief to consumers hit by higher living costs.

Take a break from the news

Despite previously working for the same newspaper as Boris Johnson and even buying the future prime minister the odd coffee, Robert Shrimsley has failed to obtain so much as a British Empire Medal, much less a peerage. Nevertheless, the FT’s UK chief political commentator has tips for our readers seeking ennoblement in the latest edition of Ask Shrimsley.

Additional contributions by Benjamin Wilhelm and Gordon Smith