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.

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AI has been in Google’s DNA since it began life as a humble search engine. Since then, it’s aimed to be a part of every aspect of our lives. Part of Google’s success in achieving this ubiquity has been its ability to move with the times and take advantage of the next big thing.

Google started as being ‘web first’ as the internet grew, became ‘mobile first’ as smartphones entered many of our pockets, and now it aims to harness its existing strengths to be ‘AI first’ as companies scramble for positions in this important field.

The decision to split Giannandrea’s role into two makes a lot of strategic sense. AI and search have much in common, but each represents two of the most important priorities for Google. That carries a lot of work and responsibility for one person to lead which could impact the company’s efficiency.

Taking up the AI role is Google Brain leader Jeff Dean. The search role, meanwhile, will go to search engineering boss Ben Gomes.

Gomes will be focusing solely on improving Google Search, while Dean will also continue his position in the Google Brain team which researches machine learning. Giannandrea won’t be leaving Google completely. but reportedly wants to be  “more hands-on with technology” than in his previous role.

TechCrunch observed that Giannandrea had a very pragmatic approach to AI — he considers ethics important to its development, but he does not believe in the end-of-the-world scenarios some have predicted. Hopefully, this is an attitude continued by Dean.

AI News wishes Giannandrea, Dean, and Gomes all well in their new roles.

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