The last of the original Siri co-founders is gone from Apple, as Tom Gruber, who lead the Siri Advanced Development group, has retired from the Cupertino iPhone maker to pursue “personal interests in photography and ocean conservation.”
Gruber helped create Siri alongside Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer. Siri was originally released as an app in the iOS App Store in 2010. Siri was purchased by Apple a mere two months later, with Cheyer, Kittlaus, and Gruber all coming along for the ride.
Gruber was the last remaining Siri original, as Kittlaus left Apple in 2011 and Cheyer left in 2012. That twosome worked together on a new artificial intelligence project called “Viv,” which was acquired by Samsung in 2016, who used it as the basis for its “Bixby” virtual assistant platform.
Apple’s Siri team will now be lead by John Giannandrea, former head of Google’s search and artificial intelligence unit. Apple hired Giannandrea in May, and just recently added him to their leadership page.
Apple is combining its Core ML and Siri teams under Giannandrea. While the teams’ structure will remain in place, they will report to Giannandrea. Under his guidance, the Cupertino firm will continue to develop its AL and ML teams, focusing on cloud computation, as well as data-sensitive on-device computations.
In addition to Gruber’s departure, The Information reports Apple’s head of search, Vipul Ved Prakash, has also left the company. Prakash was originally with Topsy, and joined Apple when that company was acquired in 2013.
(Via MacRumors)