Apple Hands Siri Responsibilities to Executive Poached From Google
July 10 2018 - 6:59PM
Dow Jones News
By Tripp Mickle
Apple Inc. is handing oversight of its Siri team to new
artificial-intelligence chief John Giannandrea three months after
hiring him from rival Google, shifting responsibility for the
voice-assistant technology to its third leader in the past
year.
Apple announced Mr. Giannandrea's hiring internally in early
April but hadn't publicly laid out his responsibilities until
Tuesday, when it added him to the corporate leadership page of its
website. It said he will report directly to Chief Executive Tim
Cook, with the title chief of machine learning and AI strategy and
a purview that includes development of Siri technologies.
Mr. Giannandrea assumes control of Siri as it tries to fend off
rising competition from rivals such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google
Assistant and Amazon.com Inc.'s Alexa. Those voice assistants have
outperformed Apple's product in independent tests on its ability to
accurately answer questions, forcing the iPhone maker to play catch
up in a category it pioneered.
Apple officially shifted responsibility for Siri to software
chief Craig Federighi last September. It had been overseen by
senior vice president Eddy Cue since 2012.
Voice-driven virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, powered by
artificial-intelligence technology, are gaining popularity by
making it simpler for people to perform computing tasks like
searching for information, shopping, and switching on lights.
Industry executives expect the systems to be embedded across a host
of devices from vending machines to cars to appliances.
The number of Google Assistant and Alexa users have swelled in
recent years amid the growing popularity of smart speakers. The
market is expected to reach 225 million units world-wide by 2020
with Amazon Echo and Google Home each claiming 34% of the market,
according to market researcher Canalys.
Apple's HomePod, which went on sale in February, has faced slow
sales after reviewers criticized Siri's limited capabilities on the
device. Apple sold 600,000 speakers in February and March,
according to market research by Strategy Analytics, and it is
expected to claim just 10% of the global smart-speaker market by
2020, according to Canalys.
Apple declined to comment on Mr. Giannandrea's role. The company
has said Siri is the world's most-used virtual assistant with over
10 billion requests processed monthly.
At Google, Mr. Giannandrea, known to colleagues as "JG," oversaw
artificial intelligence and search. His responsibilities at Apple,
in addition to Siri, will include running Apple's broad
machine-learning efforts. The role gives him a chance to further
integrate the machine-learning tools developed by startups Apple
bought over the past two years, including Lattice and Turi Inc., to
improve Siri's performance, analysts said.
He also will oversee what Apple calls its Core ML technology, a
system that extends the company's machine-learning capabilities to
app developers.
Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 10, 2018 18:44 ET (22:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024