Google's head of artificial intelligence has moved to Apple - to help improve Siri

John Giannanderea led the core search and AI research team at Google. The New York Times reported today that Giannandrea is leaving Google after ten years. He is moving to Apple, where he will lead his own team and report directly to Tim Cook. His main goal will be to improve Siri.

At Apple, John Giannandrea will be in charge of overall machine learning and artificial intelligence strategy. The information came to light from a leaked internal communication that reached the editors of the above-mentioned newspaper. The leaked email from Tim Cook also states that Giannandrea is an ideal candidate for the position also because of his personal opinion on the topic of user privacy - something that Apple takes deadly seriously.

This is a very strong personnel reinforcement, which comes to Apple at a time when one wave of criticism is pouring in on Siri. Apple's intelligent assistant is far from reaching the capabilities that competing solutions can boast of. Its functionality in Apple products is also largely limited (HomePod) or largely non-functional.

John Giannandrea held a rather important position at Google. As Senior Vice President, he was involved in the application of artificial intelligence systems to practically all Google products, whether it was the classic internet search engine, Gmail, Google Assistant and others. So, in addition to his rich experience, he will also bring substantial know-how to Apple, which will be very useful.

Apple certainly won't be able to improve Siri overnight. However, it is good to see that the company is aware of certain reserves and is doing many things to improve the position of its intelligent assistant compared to the competition. There have been several acquisitions of machine learning and artificial intelligence talent in recent months, as well as an apparent increase in the number of positions Apple offers in this segment. We will see when we will see the first significant changes or tangible results.

Source: Macrumors, Engadget

Discussion of the article

[DusanK]

Siri is the most demented voice assistant, probably no one can help her anymore...