Apple’s artificial intelligence lead, John Gianandrea, is departing the company. This decision comes as the Silicon Valley titan trails behind competitors in launching generative AI features, especially regarding the voice assistant Siri. Apple made the announcement on Monday, expressing gratitude for Mr. Gianandrea’s seven years of service.
CEO Tim Cook noted that his fellow executives played a crucial role in “building and advancing the company’s AI initiatives,” paving the way for continual innovation. Amar Subramanya, a seasoned AI researcher, will take over Gianandrea’s role.
In June 2024, Apple launched its significant AI product suite, Apple Intelligence, but it has been slow to integrate generative AI into its offerings compared to rivals like Google. While Apple has added features such as real-time language translation on its new AirPod earbuds—a capability Google introduced in 2017—and an AI-driven fitness app that uses AI-generated voices during workouts, substantial updates are still forthcoming.
The company has been hinting at AI-powered enhancements for Siri for over a year, yet the release has faced multiple delays.
“For Siri, we required additional time to achieve that high quality,” remarked Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of software engineering, during the company’s developer conference in June.
In a subsequent earnings call, Cook emphasized that Apple was “on track to create a more personalized Siri” with a launch targeted for the following year.
The appointment of Subramanya indicates a stronger focus on Apple’s AI strategy. Previously, he was Vice President of AI at Microsoft and spent 16 years at Google, where he led engineering for Gemini AI Assistant, recognized as a benchmark in the industry. Subramanya will report to Craig Federighi, who has expanded his involvement in the company’s AI initiatives in recent years.
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On Monday, Cook shared that Federighi is “helping us advance our AI efforts, including overseeing our initiatives to deliver a personalized Siri experience to our users starting next year.” In their announcement, Apple stated that this marks a “new chapter” for the company as it “intensifies its efforts” in AI.
Source: www.theguardian.com
