It seems Apple is making some significant changes to its AI division. The tech giant has announced that senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy John Giannandrea is stepping down from his role. Giannandrea, who joined the bitten fruit brand in 2018, will serve as an advisor before fully retiring in spring 2026.
This move comes amid the tech giant’s struggles to gain a foothold in the AI space. The company has continued to lag behind its competitors as it slowly introduces features to Apple Intelligence. And then there’s the promised Siri overhaul, which won’t be arriving until next year.
Meanwhile, AI researcher Amar Subramanya has joined Apple as vice president of AI, reporting to Craig Federighi. While the company did not exactly call Subramanya a direct replacement for Giannandrea, the former Microsoft corporate vice president of AI will be taking on many of Giannandrea’s responsibilities. More specifically, he will be leading areas like Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation.
Furthermore, the company has opted to break up its AI team to “align closer with similar organisations”. Aside from Federighi, Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue are at the helm of this new leadership structure.
In a statement, CEO Tim Cook thanked Giannandrea for his contributions in building and advancing the company’s AI work. Cook went on to assert that AI has “long been central to Apple’s strategy”, and that the company is pleased to welcome Subramanya to the team.
Previously, Subramanya spent 16 years working at Google as head of engineering for Google’s Gemini Assistant. Apple is looking to tap into his AI and ML research expertise to develop future Apple Intelligence features.
(Source: Apple [Newsroom])
