Apple shifts robotics team away from Giannandrea's AI organization to prioritize hardware
A new report suggests that Apple CEO Tim Cook has lost faith in his AI/ML chief John Giannandrea and is shifting the robotics team to hardware headed by John Ternus.
Apple's robotics team now works for John Ternus
Apple has been rearranging some of its teams after making a publicly embarrassing move to delay contextual Apple Intelligence features. The Siri team moved to be placed under Mike Rockwell, the Apple Vision Pro chief.
It seems that wasn't the only internal move planned by Apple, as Bloomberg reports the robotics team is moving out from under the AI/ML organization. It will instead be under the hardware division, which is led by John Ternus.
These moves haven't changed John Giannandrea's position as SVP of AI and ML at Apple, but it indicates Apple CEO Tim Cook is taking a different strategy with the refocus. It seems Giannandrea's team will build the underlying models that will run future technologies, including the robots and Siri, but work independently of the other teams.
However, rumors from the sources providing these details suggest Cook could be planning a total break-up of the AI and ML team. It could mean Giannandrea being assigned to a new position or leaving the company altogether.
Rethinking AI
The motivations of these moves aren't known and can only be guessed at beyond the obvious catalyst of the embarrassing AI delays. Cook could be trying to ensure Giannandrea and his team aren't spread too thin while ensuring robotics hardware is prioritized and Siri is developed independently.
On the other hand, the AI and ML team could be seen as redundant as Apple rethinks Apple Intelligence and its role at the company. Rather than treating AI as a separate product line, it could be being seen as an underlying framework.
Think app versus operating system.
For example, the robotic arm will rely on AI for specific kinds of interactions and data, but the robot itself isn't AI hardware. The same goes for Siri, which would call out to AI tools for answers and summaries, but itself isn't an LLM, not yet anyway.
Whether that approach requires a specific team dedicated to building the underlying models, or if each department can build their own models, remains to be seen. Time will reveal Apple's strategy as more moves are made public and whether Giannandrea sticks around.
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Comments
In any case, it appears that the previous trajectory wasn't working. It's a business, sometimes these changes must be made.
The modem project was colossal in many ways. It's a moving target and the homegrown Wi-Fi chip is also rumoured. Another moving target.
Tied to that there are the 6G research efforts.
The car project will have also used its fair share of resources.
At this point the claims that Apple wasn't behind on AI are leaking more and more by the day.
Apple hardware for training/inference is also supposedly being designed although currently they are using equipment from other vendors.
The only apparent area of roadmaps following their course in relative calm is in the chip design unit and while there has been upheaval there, it has been in the completely normal range.
Executive shakeups aren't uncommon either but the amount of rumoured seat changes of late is concerning.
On the subject of robotics, perhaps there is a parallel to be drawn with the AI situation. Competitors are mass producing robotic solutions now and upgrading them at lightning speed while the most we hear about from the Apple rumour mill is a robotic arm on a unit of some kind.
It's anybody's guess as to what the real state of Siri is and I've been wondering about the underpinnings of Apple's mobile OS offerings for a few years now. I feel sure that some major re-working will be announced at some point to pave the way for a true IoT platform OS.
Add all these things up and I get the sensation that they lack the engineering base that is needed.
The bread and butter iPhone hasn't really seen any constant leaps for a flagship device sector. They are drip feeding features to users (many of which have been available on Android for years. This year there will finally be a design change it seems, but the Pixel comparisons are already out there and Apple knows that will only intensify if it turns out to be true.
iOS has implemented a lot of features from Android/HarmonyOS too over the last few years.
WWDC will be interesting. Will they do a Snow Leopard or make more big promises about upcoming features with no real shipping guidance?
What with catching up and trying to move several major projects forward, I can't help but think a few thousand more engineers are needed.
Tim Cook is either the most understanding boss, or Gianndrea has something on him. Siri has been terrible for years. Apple tries not to lay employees off, but someone failing at this level deserves to go. I'm sure he won't be hurting in retirement or at his next role.
However, building robots that can assemble iPhones and other products would be highly valuable to Apple. I think that should be their focus. I suspect that the lessons learned from building robots that can efficiently build iPhones would translate into other robot products for external customers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ9mz-JREiU
I had one of those as a kid.
The security and privacy teams deliver. The AirPods/AirPods Pro/iPad Pro (hardware)/MBA teams are also delivering.
Obviously some teams are not doing well. The Mac "Schrödinger" Pro has been dead (or alive) for 15 years. Reissuing HomePod and AirPods Max with fewer features or old components. And even the MBP where the team has been asleep since 2021 while Dell is capable of delivering Tandem OLED in laptops.
Apple is indeed doing too many products while not getting enough from R&D investments.
Elon might very well be saying, 'Hold my Beer', I have one of those... somewhere.
As for Siri being useless? I simply don't care about Siri. I'd rejoice loudly if there was a way to totally remove all traces of the thing from my Apple kit.
I just want my iPhone, iPad and MacBook to work. The rest of what they sell? Don't care and think that Apple should concentrate more on their core products and not let itself get distracted by all this other stuff.
That's my own opinion. YMMV
I also think we're in the post "hardware horserace" era of phones. Meaning: most people have devices other than their phone in the same ecosystem. And whether you're Android or Apple, you're very unlikely to pick a phone outside your ecosystem and lose some or most integration with your other devices, just because a phone has this or that hardware feature you want. This is especially true for Apple users, who enjoy the tightest integration of all across Apple devices. I can't even imagine the feature(s) that would get me to leave iPhone for Android because the compromises to get them wouldn't be worth it.
I also believe that all of the major distractions that Apple continues to be subjected to do take a toll on focus and productivity at the upper levels of management. If nothing else it creates friction and friction tends to slow things down. Tim Cook and his executive team do an excellent job of juggling all of the priorities, but I think they’d rather be devoting the time lost to friction on more forward looking efforts.