Apple’s senior vice president for machine learning and AI strategy, John Giannandrea, has stepped down from his role. He will be succeeded by Amar Subramanya, a former Microsoft AI executive who previously oversaw the development of Google’s Gemini AI and brings over two decades of experience in the field.
Giannandrea will remain with Apple as an advisor until his planned retirement next spring. Apple CEO Tim Cook expressed gratitude for his contributions, saying Giannandrea played a key role in advancing the company’s AI initiatives and enriching user experiences.
While Apple has long placed machine learning at the heart of its work, the company has recently been perceived as falling behind rivals like Google. Products such as the AI agent Siri, once an industry leader, have seen slower innovation, and the rollout of Apple AI remains less integrated with apps compared to Android devices powered by Gemini. For more complex tasks, including generating shopping lists, Apple AI currently relies on external tools like ChatGPT.
Other AI-powered features, such as translation in AirPods, have arrived years after competing products, and upgrades to Siri have faced repeated delays. Tim Cook commented that Subramanya’s expertise will help Apple “accelerate its work in delivering intelligent, trusted, and profoundly personal experiences.”
In a separate development, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that an antitrust case against Apple can proceed in Dutch courts. The company faces allegations that App Store fees for third-party apps are excessive, harmful to users, and constitute an unlawful abuse of a dominant position. Apple had argued that a Dutch court lacked jurisdiction, but this argument has been overruled.
thetechtrident.com 