Huge loss for Apple.
Out of all the people Awni kept my hope alive that Apple would someday do something amazing in AI.
And he broke many rules by being public and representing Apple, which he did very carefully for years.
I know how hard that is, did that at Microsoft and helped write its social media policy. Apple has many rules against representing the brand in public. Simply put it's not allowed.
Years ago an Apple employee couldn't even tell anyone she was at the first iPhone developer camp (she begged me to keep her attendance private because of these rules). And when I was running developer conferences we never could get Apple employees to speak on stage because of these rules.
I saw Awni as a leader in trying to open up Apple and change the rules. And he built a nice community around MLX as a result.
Thanks @awnihannun and can't wait to see what you do next.
I bet he becomes an even bigger name here on X in the AI community because I could tell he was checking every word he posted and was knowingly stepping around many land mines.