Apple Crisis: Ki Boss Also Loses Robot Development to Hardware Boss 5 comments
Bild: Apple
Apple is increasingly new to the field of artificial intelligence (AI) due to extensive personnel changes. Internal AI boss John Giannandrea continues to lose power and must now also hand over oversight of the development of household robots after already losing Siri.
Ternus Gets Oversight of Robot Development
With the new restructuring, AI boss Giannandrea’s oversight of the robotics department is shifting to the hardware department under John Ternus. Hardware boss Ternus is already neglecting the development of the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro, and other products and is therefore also likely to be swapped for the next CEO for Apple. However, nothing will change in the management of robot development: Kevin Lynch remains in charge, only now under Ternus’ supervision. Robotics as a possible “one more thing”
The department, which has now changed its oversight, is a relatively secretive group that aims to develop a budget robot and suspected smart home devices. A recent development team recently unveiled a motorized smart table lamp reminiscent of the Pixar lamp. Apple is also working on a consumer-grade table robot, but the first models are expected to feature large, moving screens for video communication.
Robots are expected to be part of the company’s future strategy, but progress could be difficult without sufficient intelligent behavior. It will therefore not be a coincidence that the robots department is being brought together with another robotics and smart home department due to the change, which is also overseen by Ternus.
AI boss has lost confidence
The context for the restructuring is that Apple has not only significantly outperformed the competition in terms of AI under the leadership of AI boss Giannandrea, but also recently had to announce the delay of essential AI features for Siri. During this period, Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to have lost confidence in the AI boss.
Over the past month, AI boss Giannandrea has likely been overseeing Siri’s development and has subordinated the entire department to Mike Rockwell under new leadership and software boss Craig Federighi. As part of his new role, Rockwell has already swapped many existing Siri development staff with confidants from Vision-Pro development.
Giannandrea hasn’t yet acknowledged that he wants to leave the company, but as Bloomberg points out, it’s no longer entirely unlikely. After all, the AI chief remains responsible for the development and research of the AI models that are responsible for Siri and Apple’s intelligence.
Topics: Apple Intelligence, Smart Home, Economy. Source: Bloomberg
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