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John Giannandrea is focusing on finally making Siri a more competitive AI engine.
Apple may have started late, and hit some speedbumps along the way, but Apple’s Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, John Giannandrea, wants to beat Apple Intelligence into shape before handing over the reins to a successor.
Giannandrea is still in charge of AI and Large Language Model (LLM) research, AI analysts, and integrating those technologies into the larger OS infrastructures. A report from Bloomberg suggests that some Apple executives would like to see his role reduced further, ahead of a near-future departure.
Apple leadership reportedly wants to put Giannandrea on a path to retirement and the eventual naming of a successor. That said, the executive still attracts top engineers and researchers to Apple, so for now he’s staying put.
Giannadrea has acknowledged delays on AI and Siri development. The general perception among insiders is that he wasn’t hands-on enough, and more focused on underlying technologies such as machine learning rather than user-facing features like Siri.
A month ago, Apple moved Siri development to its Vision Pro head, Mike Rockwell. The move has taken some burden off Giannandrea, freeing him to complete his efforts on Apple’s AI engine.
Apple has also been buying some smaller AI-focused companies to supplement its own efforts. These acquisitions are expected to improve both user-facing features as well as core technology.
Ahead of his next assignment — or possible departure from Apple — Giannadrea has focused on upgrading the existing AI engine to take better advantage of future Apple hardware, including improved neural engine chips that will appear in the next round of Apple products.
Rockwell, by contrast, has always seen Siri as having the potential to be the main way users interact with Apple’s various OS es. He’s seen as someone who can marshal the resources to rebuild Siri into a true assistant engine — similar to ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
“[Giannandrea] should have been much, much more aggressive in getting funding to go big. But John’s not a salesman. He’s a technologist,” said an unnamed employee quoted in the report.
Apple’s engineers are known to be pushed to complete assignments rapidly, given the strong competitiveness of the technology industry and a fear of being seen to be falling behind. It’s not clear that Giannandrea was enforcing that unspoken rule.
Furthermore, the report cited Giannandrea’s team as being coddled inside the headquarter walls. Perks were extended to Giannandrea’s team that other teams did not get, which may have led to some friction.
“I know it sounds stupid, but Apple does not do free food,” one employee reportedly said. “They shipped a year after everyone else and still got free lunch.”
While Giannadrea saw Siri as an assistant for controlling devices like Apple TV or HomeKit-compatible devices, Rockwell is said to be focused on improving the overall interaction experience with users by giving Siri access to wider sources of information.
This would effectively make the technology both more flexible with user requests and more capable of interactions with other engines, which users are sure to appreciate. What’s not yet clear is how long it will take for users to see noticeable improvements in Siri’s ability to act as both a voice-oriented search tool and interactive assistant.
