Apple AI head John Giannandrea retires, to be replaced by former Microsoft VP
Apple has announced that John Giannandrea, their senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, is stepping down from his position and will serve as an advisor to the company before retiring by spring of next year. This comes as Cupertino continues to lag behind other tech giants in the AI scene.
Giannandrea joined Apple back in 2018, and according to Cupertino played a big role in the company’s AI and machine learning strategy, which included building and leading a team to develop and deploy critical AI technologies. Some of their work can be seen in Apple Foundation Models, Search and Knowledge, Machine Learning Research and AI infrastructure.
In his place will be Amar Subramanya, an AI researcher who was last the corporate vice president of AI for Microsoft as well as 16 years at Google where he was head of engineering for the Gemini AI Assistant. Subramanya will be reporting to Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, who has been taking on a larger role when it comes to AI at Apple over the last number of years.
In their press note, Apple says that Subramanya’s deep expertise in both AI and machine learning research as well as integrating it into products and features will be crucial to their ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features.
“We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users. AI has long been central to Apple’s strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig’s leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple.
In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar’s joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year,” – Tim Cook, Apple CEO
Apple revealed their keynote AI feature Apple Intelligence during the 2024 WWDC, but since then they have struggled to add AI-powered features to their products in comparison to rivals such as Google and Microsoft. Cupertino was already late to the AI boom by then, and the initial response to Apple Intelligence was middling at best. Some highlighted features such as notification summaries often ended up wrong, while a revamped Siri has been repeatedly postponed.
For now though, Apple says that these leadership moves will help them continue to push the boundaries of their AI technologies as they aim to accelerate their work in delivering “intelligent, trusted and profoundly personal experiences”.
Read more of our articles below!
