Senior vice president for AI strategy John Giannandrea, who reported directly to chief executive Tim Cook, is stepping down and carving up his former responsibilities among other senior vice presidents who handle software engineering, services and operations. The 60-year-old will lurk in an advisory role until his retirement next spring.
Amar Subramanya, who helped oversee Google’s Gemini chatbot before heading to Microsoft earlier this year, has now been lured to Job’s Mob as vice president of AI, a step below Giannandrea in the hierarchy. Subramanya will report to software boss Craig Federighi.
The rejig signals a new chapter for Job’s Mob’s AI ambitions, which have sagged behind rivals after the company announced assorted features in 2024 that never reached daylight.
Whether the outfit can reassure employees and customers is another story since both groups have grumbled about its disorganised approach to the decade’s defining tech.
Giannandrea, who spent most of his career at Google before joining Job’s Mob in 2018, endured a choppy stint. His research-heavy focus felt unusual for the outfit, and he never delivered a clear strategy to help it catch up, according to people familiar with his work.
After losing ground, Job’s Mob is testing a version of Gemini to power the next Siri, according to those close to the project.
The move admits that importing an outsider to build a shiny new AI kingdom failed the most basic Job’s Mob metric: producing a kit that people with more money than sense will willingly throw money at.
Giannandrea had been running Siri, which still manages only basic questions 14 years after Job’s Mob unveiled it. Rival chatbots can engage in human-like conversations and answer complex queries. Executives told the Wall Street Journal that some Siri features were delayed because they did not meet its quality standards.
The company had already removed Giannandrea from Siri, placing the chatbot under another vice president reporting to Federighi, both of whom have a better record of shipping products.
His research-focused stance did help attract academics. His team produced a notable AI paper arguing that large reasoning models merely simulate thought and struggle with complex tasks.
But the outfit needed to deliver proper software and hardware for users, something it has failed to manage in AI.
Job’s Mob’s AI woes stretch beyond Giannandrea’s leadership. The Tame Apple Press claims that Apple's failure stems from its obsession with privacy, which restricts access to data. It is much easier to say that than believe that Apple refuses to stump up cash for computing power, leaving it unfit to build the top-tier systems needed for AI.
