AAPL Apple Inc

By Tripp Mickle 

Apple Inc. hired a prominent executive from rival Google to lead its artificial-intelligence efforts, an area of growing importance where analysts say the tech giant has lagged rivals in research and recruiting.

The company on Tuesday told employees it named John Giannandrea its first senior vice president of artificial intelligence, according to a person familiar with the internal announcement. Mr. Giannandrea who left a similar role this week at Alphabet's Google, will report directly to Chief Executive Tim Cook, the person said.

Apple didn't have immediate comment. Google confirmed Mr. Giannandrea's departure. The New York Times reported the hiring earlier.

The hire is the latest example of Apple's work to bolster its efforts in artificial intelligence, or AI, an area of tech that is focused on developing software enabling computers to learn and improve functions on their own. The field is critical in areas like self-driving cars and voice assistants.

Apple, which is famously secretive, has lagged its peers in publishing research in the field, and that has made it difficult for the company to recruit professors and Ph.D. students from university computer-science programs, say academics and students.

The company's flagship AI product, Siri, also has fallen behind competitors such as Amazon.com's Alexa and Google Voice in the number of tasks it can perform and accuracy. The HomePod, a smart speaker released in February, put a spotlight on some of those shortcomings, according to reviewers.

Mr. Giannandrea, known to colleagues as "JG," was well-regarded at Google where he was considered a skilled manager adept at leading the engineering team, a person familiar with his work said. He joined the company in 2010 and led efforts to incorporate AI into Google products such as Photos and its Inbox app. He was tapped in 2016 to run its search engine.

He isn't listed as an author of any AI or machine-learning papers on Research by Google, a company site that compiles researchers' work.

Apple has been looking for a senior artificial-intelligence executive for nearly a year, a person familiar with the search said. Mr. Giannandrea is the company's latest AI hiring, joining Ruslan Salakhutdinov, a Carnegie Mellon University professor hired in 2016 as director of AI research, and Carlos Guestrin, a University of Washington machine learning professor brought on through the acquisition of startup Turi Inc.

Google has tapped Jeff Dean to lead its AI efforts, a company spokesman said. He joined the company in 1999 and has led its Google Brain project, which develops advanced machine-learning software called neural networks.

Ben Gomes will be the new head of Google's search-engine organization.

Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 03, 2018 23:27 ET (03:27 GMT)

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