Previewed at WWDC, launching in the fall.
Apple Updates Leadership Page to Include New AI Chief John Giannandrea
Apple today updated its Apple Leadership page to include John Giannandrea, who now serves as Apple's Chief of Machine Learning and AI Strategy.
Apple hired Giannandrea back in April, stealing him away from Google where he ran the search and artificial intelligence unit.
Giannandrea is leading Apple's AI and machine learning teams, reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. He has taken over leadership of Siri, which was previously overseen by software engineering chief Craig Federighi.
Apple told TechCrunch that it is combining its Core ML and Siri teams under Giannandrea. The structure of the two teams will remain intact, but both will now answer to Giannandrea.
Under his leadership, Apple will continue to build its AI/ML teams, says TechCrunch, focusing on general computation in the cloud alongside data-sensitive on-device computations.
Giannandrea spent eight years at Google before joining Apple, and before that, he founded Tellme Networks and Metaweb Technologies.
Apple's hiring of Giannandrea in April came amid ongoing criticism of Siri, which many have claimed has serious shortcomings in comparison to AI offerings from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google due to Apple's focus on privacy.
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In 2018, Apple is improving Siri through a new Siri Shortcuts feature that's coming in iOS 12, which is designed to let users create multi-step tasks using both first and third-party apps that can be activated through Siri.
Apple hired Giannandrea back in April, stealing him away from Google where he ran the search and artificial intelligence unit.
Giannandrea is leading Apple's AI and machine learning teams, reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. He has taken over leadership of Siri, which was previously overseen by software engineering chief Craig Federighi.
Apple told TechCrunch that it is combining its Core ML and Siri teams under Giannandrea. The structure of the two teams will remain intact, but both will now answer to Giannandrea.
Under his leadership, Apple will continue to build its AI/ML teams, says TechCrunch, focusing on general computation in the cloud alongside data-sensitive on-device computations.
Giannandrea spent eight years at Google before joining Apple, and before that, he founded Tellme Networks and Metaweb Technologies.
Apple's hiring of Giannandrea in April came amid ongoing criticism of Siri, which many have claimed has serious shortcomings in comparison to AI offerings from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google due to Apple's focus on privacy.
In 2018, Apple is improving Siri through a new Siri Shortcuts feature that's coming in iOS 12, which is designed to let users create multi-step tasks using both first and third-party apps that can be activated through Siri.
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Top Rated Comments
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2 weeks ago
Seems like these one off hirings are a publicity stunt to appease shareholders rather than to actually improve Siri because not much if any has changed...
https://www.reddit.com/r/SiriFail/
2 weeks ago
Seems like these one off hirings are a publicity stunt to appease shareholders rather than to actually improve Siri because not much if any has changed...
https://www.reddit.com/r/SiriFail/
Yes, let’s pretend that Google’s and other competitors things aren’t worse if not equally terrible...
2 weeks ago
This is good. I am happy with the hire as obviously Google has some smart people, but he will be building services and features that respect their users' privacy and won't be centered around data mining and advertising. I'd think this would be more appealing.
2 weeks ago
Seems like these one off hirings are a publicity stunt to appease shareholders rather than to actually improve Siri because not much if any has changed...
https://www.reddit.com/r/SiriFail/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SiriFail/
2 weeks ago
Shortcomings due to Apple's focus on privacy?
Or shortcomings because they thought they knew what users would want to use Siri for, never expecting a) a competitor would release a product that b) went so far beyond in capabilities that Siri was designed to do...
and now Apple is scrambling (still) to catch up.
Or shortcomings because they thought they knew what users would want to use Siri for, never expecting a) a competitor would release a product that b) went so far beyond in capabilities that Siri was designed to do...
and now Apple is scrambling (still) to catch up.
2 weeks ago
Why aren't they able or willing to call Shortcuts what is? Automator.
There's nothing AI about scripts.
There's nothing AI about scripts.
2 weeks ago
Shortcomings due to Apple's focus on privacy?
Or shortcomings because they thought they knew what users would want to use Siri for, never expecting a) a competitor would release a product that b) went so far beyond in capabilities that Siri was designed to do...
and now Apple is scrambling (still) to catch up.
There is a lot of conjecture that voice assistant superiority means something, but show me the data. I really don't think Apple cares much about what Google Assistant does that incremental to Siri, because it's just not all that useful from a day to day perspective or even that evident to the average user.
Now show me evidence that Apple isn't making huge strides in AI that could be unleashed when it does become important.
2 weeks ago
I remain unimpressed with everyones "siri". Siri does what I need correctly 95% of the time. I want it to do way more, but no one else service does way more. These technologies are also surprisingly underutilized except for making funny youtube videos. Amazons devices probably get used more than anything else because there is no other interface.
"AI" is more than siri. The photos recognition in Photos (kind of a dumb name for internet searching on fixes or features, right?) is very impressive and when it came out was far ahead. The creation of memories videos is a certain kind of algorithm logic that is impressive. Speech recognition is poor on almost every device. It will get better over time as we apply more brute force solutions and refinements.
"AI" is more than siri. The photos recognition in Photos (kind of a dumb name for internet searching on fixes or features, right?) is very impressive and when it came out was far ahead. The creation of memories videos is a certain kind of algorithm logic that is impressive. Speech recognition is poor on almost every device. It will get better over time as we apply more brute force solutions and refinements.
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