The Google superstar Apple poached is now in charge of Siri

Apple

• Apple announced that it will combine its machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Siri groups.
• They will report to John Giannandrea, who Apple poached from Google earlier this year.

Apple announced on Tuesday that it combined its machine learning and Siri groups under John Giannandrea, a Google veteran that the iPhone maker poached earlier this year.

His team will be in charge of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Siri, according to TechCrunch, although employees that report up to him "will likely remain integrated across the org."

According to a bio added to Apple's leadership page since late June, he reports to CEO Tim Cook and his title is "Chief of Machine Learning and AI Strategy." He is one of 16 executives who report directly to Cook.

From his bio:

"Prior to Apple, John spent 8 years at Google where he led the Machine Intelligence, Research, and Search teams. Before this he co-founded two technology companies, Tellme Networks and Metaweb Technologies. Earlier in his career John was a Senior Engineer at General Magic."

When Giannandrea unexpectedly stepped down at Google to join Apple, it was a big deal. He was the chief of search and artificial intelligence at Google during a period where the search giant embraced the technologies.

The New York Times said he was "perhaps the most eligible tech executive on the market" during the brief period before he announced he planned to work for Apple.

Apple has another high-profile machine learning expert on staff, Carnegie Mellon professor Russ Salakhutdinov.