Apple has appointed Amar Subramanya as its Vice President of Artificial Intelligence. The company hired him on December 1. Subramanya will replace John Giannandrea, who is retiring in May 2026. At Apple, Subramanya will lead Foundation Models, Machine Learning Research, and AI Safety teams and will report to Craig Federighi, head of the software team. This hiring at Apple is part of Silicon Valley’s talent war, where top engineers are being lured with high salaries and bonuses. Subramanya worked at Google for 16 years, from 2009 to July 2025. He also led the engineering team for Google’s AI assistant, Gemini. He joined Microsoft in July, but left Microsoft for Apple in less than 5 months. Amar Subramanya: The Journey from Bengaluru to Seattle Amar Subramanya is an AI researcher of Indian origin. He was born in Bengaluru. In 2001, he earned a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Electrical, Electronics, and Communication Engineering from Bangalore University. From 2005-2009, he completed his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Washington in Seattle. Apple’s AI Challenges: Why Siri’s overhaul is delayed Apple’s AI journey has faced several hurdles. Problems emerged with Apple Intelligence, launched in October 2024. For instance, fake headlines appeared in notification summaries incorrect news like a suspect’s suicide, premature sports victories, and Netanyahu’s arrest. This angered users and also led to legal cases. Delay in Siri’s upgrade Siri’s major upgrade, which would give it contextual awareness and app control, has been delayed until mid-2026. Internal tests failed. The Siri team was previously under John Giannandrea. Gianandrea led Machine Intelligence but retired in 2024. He will remain an advisor until May 2026. In 2024, he published a paper on ‘Large-Reasoning Models,’ criticizing AI’s simulated cognition. Simulated cognition means artificially creating human-like thinking and understanding processes in a computer or artificial system. Apple is now developing a 1-trillion parameter in-house model. Additionally, a $1 billion licensing deal with Gemini is expected, which will boost Siri. Subramanya’s entry will accelerate Apple in the AI race Subramanya’s entry will accelerate Apple in the AI race. He will integrate Apple Intelligence and the Gemini deal. This will help revive Siri. Talent mobility is increasing in Silicon Valley. OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic are also pursuing experts. Apple’s focus will remain on multimodal AI, but balancing privacy will be a challenge.
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