Apple has just confirmed that John Giannandrea, the ex-Googler machine learning veteran who joined the company back in April, has joined the likes of Tim Cook, Jony Ive, Eddy Cue and Angela Ahrendts on the executive team.
His role on the executive team will be “Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Strategy,” signaling just how key AI and machine learning will be to Apple moving forward.
Giannandrea has been leading Apple’s Siri and Core ML team for months, bringing the two previously distinct teams together under one leader.
Prior to Apple, Giannandrea spent eight years leading the AI push at Google; as of 2016, he was leading the search team, as well.
We spoke to Giannandrea at TechCrunch Disrupt shortly before he parted ways with Google. You can see that video here: