Between Cupertino's comings and goings, some prominent names end up appearing amid resignations or contracts. This time, who left Apple was the specialist in artificial intelligence and one of the main names in the development of Siri, Tom Gruber.
Gruber is the last co-founder of Siri to leave Ma and retired to "pursue personal interests in photography and the conservation of the oceans", according to a report published by The Information.
Gruber, along with developers Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, originally created Siri as an app, launched in 2010. Apple bought it shortly afterwards and the three executives went to the company. Kittlaus left Apple in 2011 and Cheyer left in 2012. Soon after, the pair teamed up again to create Viv, a new artificial intelligence project that was acquired by Samsung in 2016. The Asian giant, in turn, used Viv to create Bixby, your current AI assistant.
Still according to the The Information, the head of research Vipul Ved Prakash also recently left Apple. Prakash joined Ma in 2013 after she acquired the research and analysis firm Topsy, in which he served as CEO. Two years after buying Topsy, Apple decided to close the company.
Gruber and Prakash left Apple at a time of company reorganization, in which Siri and machine learning teams are being brought together. In the meantime, Apple hired former Google research and AI chief John Giannandrea as the new executive in that area.
Three other executives leave Apple in India
In addition to Gruber, Ma's recent losses were not restricted to the United States. In India, three executives have left Apple in the past few weeks, as disclosed by Bloomberg. Among them are the national head of product sales and distribution, the head of commercial / business channels and the head of sales for telecommunications operators who have not had their names disclosed.
With the departure of these executives, Apple's Indian sales team announced that it is undergoing a “restructuring”, which would not be very welcome for the company given Ma's current difficulty in boosting iPhone sales in the Indian market.
Furthermore, it is not the first time that the technology giant has lost employees in the country. Last December, Apple's chief operating officer in India left the company, being replaced by Michel Coulomb, who recently said he was struggling in his job, as reported by 9to5Mac.
Former Apple HR chief joins startup of autonomous cars
Tami Rosen, former director of human resources at Apple, was hired as CHRO by startup Luminar, which develops products such as LiDAR sensors, maps and safety devices for autonomous cars.
In addition to Apple, Rosen worked for 16 years in the Goldman Sachs group and recently held the position of vice president of people at Quora.
via 9to5Mac, TechCrunch
