After eight years at Google, freshly recruited John Giannandrea takes charge of two units of Apple dedicated to artificial intelligence.
Siri needs to improve, and Apple knows it. To this end, the Cupertino company has just regrouped the development of its personal assistant and the Core ML home technology under the leadership of John Giannandrea. This expert in the field of artificial intelligence joined Apple last April, after eight years at Google.
Core ML (for “Machine Learning”) is the software building block that Apple offers to third-party developers to integrate into their applications to add a touch of artificial intelligence. Apple introduced this API at WWDC 2017.
AI everywhere at Apple
If John Giannandrea takes the lead of these two units, the internal structure within Apple does not change, according to TechCrunch. Both services are indeed shared with others, especially those dealing with developer tools or mapping (which is also experiencing its revolution).
The idea is that AI is present in all areas of expertise of Apple and is not developed in isolation, isolated from other services of the company. Moreover, it could be the best way to calm the intestine wars, born of divergence between the various teams around the Siri project. Last March, The Information revealed the difficulties of this development, the loss of vision in the aftermath of Steve Jobs’ death and the many changes in priorities and strategic approaches.
So many mistakes that explain the loss of advance of Siri, yet forerunner in the field in 2011, and even now his delay compared to the Google Assistant. The challenge that awaits John Giannandrea lives up to his reputation in Silicon Valley.
A concrete CV
Long before working for Google, John Giannandrea was part of the 90’s General Magic. It was founded by Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld and Marc Porat, three former Apple engineers. In particular, she had developed a prototype PDA, long before this type of device was popular.
Many are the current pundits of Silicon Valley to have made their debut, as Andy Rubin, the father of Android, or Tony Fadell, who attributed the invention of the iPod. John Giannandrea will now have to do at least as well for Siri.
