Apple's longtime AI chief John Giannandrea is stepping down and will leave the company in spring 2026. Until then, he will stay on as an advisor. Amar Subramanya will take over as the new Vice President of AI, reporting directly to software chief Craig Federighi. Subramanya joins Apple from Microsoft and previously spent 16 years at Google, where he served as the technical lead for the Gemini Assistant.

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Subramanya will oversee development of Apple's foundation models and its broader AI research. Other parts of Giannandrea's former portfolio - including AI infrastructure and search - will shift to Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue.

The leadership shake-up comes after major delays to the new Siri rollout and a wave of departures within Apple's AI group. CEO Tim Cook thanked Giannandrea for his work and said the restructuring is meant to speed up development of more personalized AI features.

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Max is the managing editor of THE DECODER, bringing his background in philosophy to explore questions of consciousness and whether machines truly think or just pretend to.
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