Oct 15 (Reuters) - Apple's ( AAPL ) Ke Yang, the newly

tapped executive leading an effort to develop a ChatGPT-like

AI-driven web search, is stepping down to join Meta,

Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people with

knowledge of the matter.

Just weeks ago, Yang was appointed head of a team called

Answers, Knowledge and Information, or AKI, which is central to

the Siri voice assistant's overhaul, planned for March, the

report said.

Apple ( AAPL ), Meta and Yang did not immediately respond to Reuters'

requests for comment.

Yang has been with Apple ( AAPL ) since 2019, according to his

LinkedIn profile.

Meta has intensified Silicon Valley's talent war through

aggressive hiring aiming to challenge rivals, including OpenAI,

Google and Anthropic, as the tech firms pour significant

investment into AI in the race to superintelligence.

The Mark Zuckerberg-led company had poached top AI

executives from the iPhone maker before, including Robby Walker

and Ruoming Pang, as earlier reported by Bloomberg News.