Apple’s Siri chief has departed, and that may be a good thing

The Apple executive responsible since 2012 for the (somewhat slow) development of Siri, Bill Stasior, has left the role, according to a report from The Information. It will be up to senior VP of machine learning and AI strategy John Giannandrea to appoint a replacement. The Information piece suggests Apple may have ousted Stasior to give Giannandrea more control over Siri.

Apple poached Giannandrea from Google–where he led search and AI–in April of last year, in what many considered a coup. Gianandrea is a known name in AI circles. At Apple, he was originally hired as chief of machine learning and AI strategy, but was promoted to senior VP later in the year, reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook.

Siri has long been criticized for lagging behind the capabilities of assistants from rival tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for confirmation and comment.