Earlier this month Apple's CEO made it clear that their slow down in hiring wasn't going to be across the board and it wasn't the solution to their missed quarter. Teams key to the company like Artificial Intelligence and original video content would continue hiring at a strong pace. Based on that statement, Apple recently laying off 200 employees on their Project Titan team would suggest that it's less of a priority at the moment.

Then again, it's all in how you see it. Internally, Apple's new Project Titan management reprioritized segments of the project for 2019 and those on teams not needed were simply reassigned within the company. Therefore reports with negative bylines of 200 employees laid off is a little misleading.  

Apple told CNBC: "We have an incredibly talented team working on autonomous systems and associated technologies at Apple. As the team focuses their work on several key areas for 2019, some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiatives, across all of Apple," the spokesperson said.

In August 2018, Apple enlisted a Tesla engineering vice president and Apple veteran, Doug Field, to lead the Titan team alongside Bob Mansfield. This week's dismissals from the group were seen, internally, as anticipated restructuring under the relatively new leadership. For more on this read the full CNBC report here.