Sometimes it’s difficult keeping track of Silicon Valley appointments, but John Giannandrea’s journey is one worth keeping tabs on.
Giannandrea is one of Silicon Valley’s brightest minds in AI. He came under the spotlight for heading Google’s search and artificial intelligence operations.
After spending eight years at Google, back in April he was poached by Apple to lead its Siri and CoreML efforts. His positive impact at Apple was clearly noted.
In a statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote:
“John hit the ground running at Apple and we are thrilled to have him as part of our executive team.
Machine learning and AI are important to Apple’s future as they are fundamentally changing the way people interact with technology, and already helping our customers live better lives.
We’re fortunate to have John, a leader in the AI industry, driving our efforts in this critical area.”
Giannandrea has now been appointed Senior Vice President at Apple and will report directly to Tim Cook.
Apple has placed a greater focus in 2018 on building out Siri’s functionality after being criticised for shortcomings in comparison to rivals. With its latest appointment, it’s clear Cupertino is happy to place a bet on Giannandrea in closing that gap.
