Apple hires Google’s former A.I Chief John Giannandrea, aims to improve Siri


John Giannandrea

Apple is hiring Google’s former head of search and artificial intelligence; John Giannandrea. The news was first reported by The New York Times, and it comes one day after he announced that he was stepping down from his role at Google. 

John Giannandrea joined Google back in 2010 as a machine learning expert, and it is a big deal for Apple who is lagging behind in the AI fields like computer vision and natural language processing. According to reports, John Giannandrea will directly report to CEO Tim Cook as the leader of “machine learning and AI strategy. With Google, Facebook, Amazon and to some extent Microsoft are racing ahead in AI.

It is Apple who helped define the early market with its virtual assistant Siri has slowly started declining with no access to data nor the research talent and resources to reach the same level of intensity as its rivals. Apple in a statement on Tuesday said that Giannandrea would run Apple’s “machine learning and A.I. strategy,” and become one of 16 executives who report directly to Tim Cook.

Though Apple is the world’s most valuable publicly traded company; the company is lagging behind regarding iPhone’s digital assistant; Siri, which is very less effective than its counterparts at Google and Amazon. As for Google, the company’s veteran Jeff Dean will be taking Giannandrea’s place.

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