The executive leading Google's search and artificial intelligence units, John Giannandrea, is stepping down after two years on the job to join Apple, the New York Times reported. He will run Apple’s machine learning and AI strategy, reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook, the company confirmed, after Cook announced the appointment in an email to staff.
Giannandrea's role at Google will be split between two executives, the company told CNBC. Jeff Dean, the cofounder of Google Brain, one of the company's AI research arms, will lead all of its AI efforts. Ben Gomes, who joined Google in 2000 and was running search engineering, will take over the search organization.
Giannandrea, a machine learning expert, joined Google in 2010 after the company acquired his start-up Metaweb Technologies. His company's work formed the basis of Google's Knowledge Graph, which brings up information at the top of search.
