Apple To Strip Secret Robotics Unit From AI Chief Weeks After Moving Siri (bloomberg.com)
(Thursday April 24, 2025 @05:30PM (msmash)
from the when-it-rains dept.)
- Reference: 0177126993
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/04/24/2025223/apple-to-strip-secret-robotics-unit-from-ai-chief-weeks-after-moving-siri
- Source link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-24/apple-to-strip-secret-robotics-unit-from-ai-chief-weeks-after-moving-siri
An anonymous reader [1]shares a report :
> Apple will remove its secret robotics unit from the command of its artificial intelligence chief, the latest shake-up in response to the company's AI struggles. Apple plans to relocate the robotics team from John Giannandrea's 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't public. The pending shift will mark the second major project to be removed from Giannandrea in the past month: The company [2]stripped the flailing Siri voice assistant from his purview in March.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-24/apple-to-strip-secret-robotics-unit-from-ai-chief-weeks-after-moving-siri
[2] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/168205/apple-shakes-up-ai-executive-ranks-in-bid-to-turn-around-siri
> Apple will remove its secret robotics unit from the command of its artificial intelligence chief, the latest shake-up in response to the company's AI struggles. Apple plans to relocate the robotics team from John Giannandrea's 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't public. The pending shift will mark the second major project to be removed from Giannandrea in the past month: The company [2]stripped the flailing Siri voice assistant from his purview in March.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-24/apple-to-strip-secret-robotics-unit-from-ai-chief-weeks-after-moving-siri
[2] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/168205/apple-shakes-up-ai-executive-ranks-in-bid-to-turn-around-siri
They are so busy keeping everything secret... (Score:3)
by ffkom ( 3519199 )
... that, alas, there is no time left to development some actually useful chat-bot. The distrust in their own employees at Apple is legendary.
Seems like a reasonable move (Score:3)
I don't know anything about Giannandrea but think it's possible that Apple decided that their AI effort would require more resources and management effort than currently allocated and having Giannandrea try to do both AI and robotics was asking too much and dividing his efforts.
If Apple decided Giannandrea wasn't doing his job they probably would have replaced him rather than moving smaller parts of his portfolio to other divisions. Doesn't it seem appropriate that robotics code development be done within the hardware division? That code seems pretty specialized and closely tied to hardware functions.