Jack Nicas (@jacknicas) and Cade Metz (@CadeMetz) for the New York Times:
Apple has hired Google’s chief of search and artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, a major coup in its bid to catch up to the artificial intelligence technology of its rivals.
Apple said on Tuesday that Mr. Giannandrea will run Apple’s “machine learning and A.I. strategy,” and become one of 16 executives who report directly to Apple’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook.
The hire is a victory for Apple, which many Silicon Valley executives and analysts view as lagging its peers in artificial intelligence, an increasingly crucial technology for companies that enable computers to handle more complex tasks, like understanding voice commands or identifying people in images.
I’m not surprised at all.
Apple should poach the best AI talent they can find. Siri has clearly been suffering for years. No one on the (former?) Siri team wants to take responsibility for the digital assistant failures of years past. It seems the Homepod barely launched with Siri at all. With all these failures left and right, Apple can’t afford to lose the AI assistant battle in the home. It’s no wonder Homekit doesn’t support Google Home. They’re clearly playing catch-up and this is the first public hire that means serious business.