Apple's AI boss leaves his post

After 7 years of dedication as Apple's AI Director, John Giannandrea will become an advisor in this area and retire in early 2026.

John Giannandrea will leave his position as Apple's AI chief in early 2026. Photo: Bloomberg g

John Giannandrea will be stepping down as head of AI at Apple, the company announced on December 1. The change comes as Apple struggles to get its AI-powered Siri back on track after delaying its launch earlier this year.

Amar Subramanya will take on the role of Vice President of AI at Apple. He spent 16 years at Google before joining Microsoft's AI division as Vice President of AI in July. At Apple, Subramanya will oversee the company's AI model development, machine learning research, and AI safety.

In March, Apple delayed the launch of a more personalized version of Siri, admitting it was taking longer than expected. Bloomberg later reported that CEO Tim Cook had “lost confidence” in Giannandrea’s ability to oversee the company’s AI team, leading him to hand over the reins to Mike Rockwell, the head of Vision Pro development.

Apple said Subramanya’s experience integrating AI research into products “will be critical to continued innovation and future Apple Intelligence features.” In this personnel move, Subramanya will report to Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering.

Apple is expected to launch an upgraded Siri next spring. A report from Bloomberg says the company will use a customized version of Google's Gemini model to power some of the virtual assistant's new features.

“AI has long been central to Apple’s strategy. We are excited to welcome Amar to Craig’s leadership team and bring his exceptional AI expertise to Apple,” Cook said in a statement.

He also said Craig has been instrumental in expanding the AI ​​leadership team and responsibilities with Amar joining, as well as accelerating the company’s AI efforts. The engineer has overseen the rollout of a more personalized Siri for users next year.

Giannandrea, who led AI and Search at Google, joined Apple in 2018 to help improve its voice assistant, Siri. Before that, he was an architect who spent eight years leading teams behind key technologies like knowledge data, intelligent search, AI, and machine learning at Google.

Apple said the remaining parts of Giannandrea's division will be transferred to COO Sabih Khan and Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue, in line with similar divisions. Subramanya will be in charge of Apple Foundation Models, machine learning research, and AI Safety & Evaluation.

Giannandrea will continue as an advisor before retiring in the spring of 2026.

Source: https://znews.vn/sep-ai-cua-apple-roi-ghe-post1607758.html