The tech giant confirmed that the staff, who listen to Siri recordings to check if the voice assistant is working correctly, will have to relocate to Austin by 26 April.

The workers were stunned by the sudden announcement after Apple had promised to move them to another campus in San Diego by the end of January.

Apple said the staff can apply for other jobs within the company, but some fear they are not good enough for different Apple roles in the city, and most do not want to move.

The move is a harsh blow for the workers, who will lose their jobs if they do not uproot their lives.

For those that do relocate, Bloomberg writes they’ll be given $7,000 stipends, while Apple will offer the others four weeks of severance plus another week’s worth per year that they worked and six months of health insurance. The San Diego team reportedly listens to Siri recordings in multiple languages, including Hebrew, English, Spanish, and Arabic.

Apple is behind the AI curve, at least regarding its digital assistant, despite using people to quality check Siri recordings, as Google and Meta do. That perception didn’t change with the introduction of LLMs, but Apple has been pouring vast resources into catching up, and it’s reportedly been courting news outlets to buy training data. It recently released its so-called frameworks and libraries supporting AI development on code repositories and is working on optimising LLMs for use on its iPhones. The company is expected to announce its LLM plans in June.