Apple today has announced that it is naming John Giannandrea as its first Chief of Machine Learning and AI strategy. John Giannandrea joined Apple back in April, he was making contributions at Google since 2010 including AI related products like Google Assistant, Gmail, Google Search’s Knowledge Graph, and more.
The company is also heard grouping some machine learning teams to see further improvements to Siri and more. The regrouped artificial intelligence/machine learning teams will be overseen by Giannandrea in his new Chief of Machine Learning and AI Strategy role. Before, Google Johnco-founded two technology companies, Tellme Networks, and Metaweb Technologies.
Apple is also overhauling Maps from the ground up and for this, the company is said to be using first-party data gathered by iPhones with a privacy-first methodology and its own fleet of cars packed with sensors and cameras. It is good that Apple has finally realized there is still some development that has to be done to fill to close the gap between Siri and Alexa/Google Assistant.