Apple Removes AI Chief John Giannandrea From Leadership Page
▼ Summary
– John Giannandrea, Apple’s AI chief, is retiring next spring and has been removed from the company’s executive leadership page.
– Amar Subramanya, a former Microsoft AI executive, is set to replace Giannandrea and will report to software engineering chief Craig Federighi.
– Some of Giannandrea’s former teams, including AI Infrastructure and Search and Knowledge, are being shifted to other Apple executives.
– Giannandrea joined Apple in 2018 after working at Google and oversaw Siri and other AI efforts until his responsibilities were reduced ahead of his retirement.
– His departure follows the delayed launch of new Siri features and reported internal issues with the AI team’s leadership and direction.
Apple has updated its official leadership webpage, reflecting the impending retirement of its longtime artificial intelligence chief, John Giannandrea. The company confirmed earlier this week that Giannandrea will step down from his role this coming spring, transitioning to an advisory position until his formal departure. This swift update to the executive roster underscores a significant shift in the tech giant’s AI leadership structure.
Former Microsoft executive Amar Subramanya is poised to assume the role of vice president of AI at Apple, though his profile has not yet been added to the leadership site. In his new capacity, Subramanya will report directly to senior vice president of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi. Furthermore, responsibilities for several teams previously under Giannandrea’s oversight, including AI Infrastructure and Search and Knowledge, are being redistributed to executives Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue.
Giannandrea’s tenure at Apple began in 2018 when he was appointed senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy. His purview included critical projects like the Siri voice assistant and the Core ML developer framework. Prior to his time at Apple, he held a prominent engineering leadership position at Google.
His decision to retire follows a period of notable challenges for Apple’s AI ambitions, particularly surrounding Siri. The company introduced a suite of advanced “Apple Intelligence” features for Siri during its WWDC event alongside iOS 18, using these promised capabilities to help market the subsequent iPhone 16 lineup. However, the anticipated spring 2025 launch of these smarter Siri functions was abruptly postponed, with Apple announcing a delay of up to a year, citing the features were not yet ready for release.
This setback appears to have been brewing. According to reports citing more than half a dozen former Apple AI team members, development of Siri was hampered by internal issues including leadership struggles, stringent privacy protocols that limited data usage, personality conflicts, and organizational indecision. While Apple has not publicly addressed these specific claims, the company initiated a major restructuring of the Siri team in March, removing the project from Giannandrea’s direct management. This was followed by his removal from oversight of Apple’s robotics division in April, signaling a broader reallocation of his responsibilities well before the retirement announcement.
(Source: Mac Rumors)
