Sept 12 (Reuters) - Robby Walker, one of Apple's ( AAPL )

most senior artificial intelligence executives, is

leaving the company, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing

people with knowledge of the matter.

Walker's exit comes as Apple's ( AAPL ) cautious approach to AI has

fueled concerns it is sitting out what could be the industry's

biggest growth wave in decades.

The company was slow to roll out its Apple Intelligence

suite, including a ChatGPT integration, while a long-awaited AI

upgrade to Siri has been delayed until next year.

Walker has been the senior director of the iPhone maker's

Answers, Information and Knowledge team since April this year.

He has been with Apple ( AAPL ) since 2013, according to his LinkedIn

profile.

He is planning to leave Apple ( AAPL ) next month, the report said.

Walker was in charge of Siri until earlier this year, before

management of the voice assistant was shifted to software

chief Craig Federighi.

Apple ( AAPL ) did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for

comment.

Recently, Apple ( AAPL ) has seen a slew of its AI executives leave

to join Meta Platforms ( META ). The list includes Ruoming Pang,

Apple's ( AAPL ) top executive in charge of AI models, according to a

Bloomberg report from July.

Meta has also hired two other Apple AI researchers, Mark Lee

and Tom Gunter - who worked closely with Pang - for its

Superintelligence Labs team.

Mike Rockwell, vice president in charge of the Vision

Products Group, would be in charge of Siri virtual assistant as

CEO Tim Cook has lost confidence in AI head John Giannandrea's

ability to execute on product development, Bloomberg had

reported in March.

At its annual product launch event last week, Apple ( AAPL )

introduced an upgraded line of iPhones, alongside a slimmer

iPhone Air, and held prices steady amid U.S. President Donald

Trump's tariffs that have hurt the company's profit.

The event, though, was light on evidence of how Apple ( AAPL ) - a

laggard in the AI race - aimes to close the gap with the likes

of Google, which showcased the capabilities of its

Gemini AI model in its latest flagship phones.