After Apple Intelligence Debacle: Apple Cuts AI Chief Position
The Siri debacle continues to cause internal turmoil at Apple, and an AI chief will soon no longer exist. A specialist for Google Gemini is said to fix it.
(Image: Apple)
Apple's AI chief is leaving the company: John Giannandrea, who led the machine learning and AI strategy division for around eight years, is stepping down and will retire in spring 2026. The company announced this on Tuesday. Giannandrea's departure had already been foreshadowed: The ever-increasing problems and unfulfilled promises surrounding the outdated voice assistant system Siri and Apple Intelligence have led to significant internal realignments in recent months and a far-reaching disempowerment of the AI chief.
Siri as a persistent problem case
Giannandrea joined Apple from Google in 2018 and drove machine learning within the company, but he clearly did not get the deep-seated problems of Siri under control. He is considered an architect of Apple's hybrid approach, combining local on-device language models with cloud-based AI models. For Siri, the manufacturer also promised a major new beginning in 2024 with Apple Intelligence. Extensive functions were presented where Siri works cleverly with personal data and can perform actions across apps. So far, Apple has delivered practically none of this except for a more colorful user interface, but at the same time reacted sensitively to vaporware accusations. A "more personalized Siri" is now supposed to follow in 2026.
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According to reports, Apple has secured support from Google for this and intends to rely on Gemini technology in the underlying infrastructure. This fits with the fact that Apple's new "Vice President of AI" Amar Subramanya previously worked at Google – most recently as Engineering Lead for the Gemini chatbot. Subramanya then had a brief stint at Microsoft and is now responsible for the further development of Apple's foundation models.
Apple without a dedicated AI chief in the future
Apple will no longer have a top-level AI chief for the time being: Subramanya reports to Apple's head of software, Craig Federighi. Other parts of Giannandrea's AI division will in future fall under the leadership of Apple's Services chief Eddy Cue and Operations chief Sabih Khan. These management changes would drive work forward "to deliver intelligent, trustworthy, and deeply personal experiences," the company said.
(lbe)
