The former head of Google's artificial intelligence becomes the head of Apple's artificial intelligence strategy

Apple has officially appointed John Giannandrea as Head of Strategy for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Giannandrea was previously the head of Google's artificial intelligence, research and research teams for eight years before joining Apple, a transition that was revealed in April of this year. He will be one of the 16 leaders of the technology giant in Cupertino, California, who will report directly to CEO Tim Cook. In an email sent to staff by The New York Times, Cook said that Giannandrea "shares our commitment to privacy and our thoughtful approach."

In his new role at Apple, Giannandrea will be responsible for his approach to AI and machine learning and his efforts to advance the core technologies of the company around his solutions ML and Siri. It is understood that he will rely on his experience with machine learning at Google to help guide Apple's AI strategy, which has been widely considered lethargic in its approach to expansion. Giannandrea joined California-based Mountain View-based research giant in 2010 as vice president of engineering after the acquisition of Metaweb start-up, where he was the chief technology officer of the company. August 2005 until July 2010. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was a partner at Silicon Valley Colocation from April 1994 to July 2010. Earlier in his career, he held the position of Technical Director at Tellme Networks, Chief Technician at Netscape Communications, Senior Engineer at General Magic, Engineer at Silicon Graphics Inc., and Engineer at INMOS Corporation. Giannandrea earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, where he also received an honorary doctorate. Currently, he is a board member of the SETI Institute and the Castilleja School

At Google, Ben Gomes has been appointed to the vice president of research at Google. Gomes has been working for the search giant since 2000 and has led research engineering in the company. On the side of artificial intelligence, Jeff Dean was named to succeed Giannandrea. Dean is leading the Google Brain team before heading Google's AI unit as an additional responsibility. He has been with Google since 1999.