The previous head of the Siri division of Apple is leaving the Cupertino-based tech giant after almost a decade of service. According to a new report, the former Siri boss will be with the AI division of Microsoft. Bill Stasior left Apple in May 2019 and will only be joining Microsoft later this August as the company's vice president and directly reporting to Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott.
Bill Stasior started his career with Apple in 2012, and after seven years, he decided to jump ship. The transfer is less of exoneration of the state of Siri and more of a reflection of the status of AI of the Cupertino-based tech giant. In 2018, Apple pirated Google's John Giannandrea, where he served as the company's head of search and artificial intelligence.
During that time, hiring Giannandrea is a sort of admission from Apple that its efforts in artificial intelligence department needs effort and revamping evidenced by how Siri fares against Google and other voice assistants in terms of industry adaptation and sophistication. Siri is built inside every iPhone and was the first voice assistant even before Google, and Amazon Alexa was introduced.
But, it seems that the latecomers have proven to have led the race in consumer AI by integrating these assistants into smart home products. This particular division is where the Cupertino-based tech titan lagged because of its strict stance on user privacy and its late entrance in the smart speaker industry. Gianandrea had a hands-on role in the Siri division and was later promoted to senior vice president role in December.
His position is directly reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook. He is also in charge of all the general AI and machine learning projects of the company. According to a report, Giannandrea's promotion caused Bill Stasior to walk away from everyday duties of running the Siri division. Stasior used to run the Siri team before Ginannadrea was promoted to his recent position.
Bill Stasior is moving to Microsoft, which has also lagged behind Google and Amazon in terms of consumer Ai projects. But, a report stated that Stasior would not be working on Cortana, which is the company's own voice assistant. The Redmond-based tech giant aims to make Microsoft Cortana a more business-oriented and conversational voice assistant. Bill Stasior is instead assigned to an AI group, but at this point, it is not yet clear what exactly will he be working on.
