I assume Ian wants to get back into research/publishing papers as well, he hasn't published any good papers in a while. He probably wanted the industry experien

I assume Ian wants to get back into research/publishing papers as well, he hasn't published any good papers in a while. He probably wanted the industry experience/research of machine learning in commercial applications with the scale and support of Apple behind it. When Apple designs things they design it with a fixed narrow purpose. Where as with Google you build general solutions. I think he wanted the experience of both. This return to office probably just gives him a good out after he accomplished what he wanted to do at Apple.