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Apple Inc. will remove its secret robotics unit from the command of its artificial intelligence chief, the latest shake-up in response to the company\u2019s AI struggles.<\/p>\n
Apple plans to relocate the robotics team from John Giannandrea\u2019s AI organization to the hardware division later this month, according to people with knowledge of the move. That will place it under Senior Vice President John Ternus, who oversees hardware engineering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the change isn\u2019t public.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pending shift will mark the second major project to be removed from Giannandrea in the past month: The company\u00a0stripped\u00a0the flailing Siri voice assistant from his purview in March. The changes are part of a broader effort to catch up in artificial intelligence, a field where Apple has fallen behind tech peers such as Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google and OpenAI.<\/p>\n
Giannandrea, a former Google executive who serves as senior vice president of machine learning and artificial intelligence strategy, continues to run most of Apple\u2019s AI efforts. And the change will give his group more time to focus on underlying artificial intelligence technology, the people said.<\/p>\n
A representative for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment.<\/p>\n
The Siri engineering unit was taken over by Mike Rockwell, who previously ran hardware and software development for the Vision Pro headset. As part of that management shift, Rockwell kept oversight of the visionOS operating system. He is\u00a0replacing much of the management\u00a0of Siri with top deputies from the Vision Pro team, Bloomberg News reported this week.<\/p>\n
The robotics team, in contrast, is more\u00a0behind the scenes\u00a0at Apple. It\u2019s working on ways to use AI technologies to power devices \u2014 potentially laying the groundwork for a new product category. The group\u00a0is led by\u00a0veteran executive Kevin Lynch, who has managed Apple Watch software and the company\u2019s now-defunct self-driving car initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As part of the robotics project, Apple plans to release a\u00a0tabletop robot\u00a0that uses an artificial limb to move around an iPad-like display. For further in the future, the group has discussed building mobile machines, including a roaming robot similar to the Amazon Astro. The products are designed to be telepresence devices, meaning they would let users videoconference with others.<\/p>\n
Robots are quickly emerging as one of the most exciting fields in Silicon Valley, with Tesla Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and other giants investing billions of dollars in the category. After losing ground in generative AI,\u00a0canceling its self-driving car plans\u00a0and arriving late to the smart home market, Apple can ill-afford to miss out on yet another major AI-driven category.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Top Apple executives have faith in Ternus\u2019 ability to oversee the project. He\u2019s one of Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook\u2019s most trusted lieutenants and is already in charge of hardware engineering for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro and most other products. Many employees believe that Ternus could be\u00a0Apple\u2019s next CEO\u00a0\u2014 a future shift that could occur at a time when robots become more mainstream.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ternus already has jurisdiction over a hardware engineering team run by executives Matt Costello and Brian Lynch that has been working on robotics and smart home technologies. The latest shake-up also suggests that Apple is ramping up work on the effort and wants both groups more closely aligned under a single boss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The relocation of Lynch\u2019s unit is also notable because it gives Ternus control over key AI operating system and algorithms teams, groups not typically managed by the hardware engineering department. Ternus\u00a0briefly oversaw\u00a0the Vision Pro software unit \u2014 until Rockwell moved with that team to the software engineering organization. That coincided with the Siri management shift last month.<\/p>\n
For Giannandrea, the switch will mark yet another demotion of sorts in the wake of\u00a0major delays to key Siri features\u00a0and a tepid response to the Apple Intelligence platform. He has now lost hundreds of engineers just this year \u2014 to Ternus, Rockwell and software chief Craig Federighi \u2014 after Cook lost faith in his ability to execute on new product development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The shifts do free up Giannandrea\u2019s group to focus on development of underlying models that will power future Apple products \u2014 including upgrades to Apple Intelligence and Siri.<\/p>\n
The AI and machine learning group, mocked by some employees as \u201cAI\/MLess,\u201d has been reeling for months after multiple delays to promising Siri features. People within Apple also have complained about a lax attitude that has slowed down engineering and the development of new initiatives. In an\u00a0all-hands meeting last month, Apple\u2019s former head of Siri under Giannandrea \u2014 Robby Walker \u2014 called the situation \u201cugly\u201d and \u201cembarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giannandrea hasn\u2019t given his team any indication that he is planning to leave soon, but the continued shift of responsibilities has raised the prospect that the company may be preparing for a world without the executive at the helm of its AI efforts. Eight years after combining Apple\u2019s AI teams into a single group with the hire of Giannandrea, a breakup of the AI and ML team is looking more likely, the people said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
#Apple #strip #secret #robotics #unit #chief #weeks #moving #Siri<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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