Apple combines Siri, AI and ML under new hire

John Giannandrea, former head of artificial intelligence at Google, joined Apple in April.

From Techcrunch:

Apple confirmed this morning that the combined Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning team, which houses Siri, will be led by the recent hire, who came to Apple this year after an eight-year stint at Google, where he led the Machine Intelligence, Research and Search teams. Before that he founded Metaweb Technologies and Tellme.

While still at Google, Giannandrea spent 20 minutes on camera with TechCrunch’s Frederic Lardinois to discuss the AI hype/worry cycle and the importance, limitations, and acceleration of machine learning. Queue the video:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djkeV4gew4Q&w=840&h=503]

My take: I took a look at Giannandrea three months ago, when he first joined Apple. I don’t know anything more today than I knew then except that his job hasn’t got any easier. See Siri’s new boss: What the pundits are saying