Apple’s head of artificial intelligence and machine learning has stepped down from the company. 

John Giannandrea, the current senior vice president for machine Learning and AI strategy, will be replaced by former Microsoft AI executive Amar Subramanya.

Mr Subramanya has overseen the development of Gemini, Google’s AI and spent two decades in the industry.

Mr Giannandrea will stay on as an advisor to Apple until he retires next spring.

“We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive.

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While machine learning has “long been central” to Apple’s work, according to Mr Cook, the company seems to have fallen behind competitors like Google recently.

Apple has spent years lagging behind its competitors in AI, particularly in its AI agent Siri, which was industry-leading when it was first released.

The company has a “second-mover advantage” attitude, where it sees value in taking time to refine and improve new technologies before releasing them to customers.

But it has been criticised recently for the slow roll-out of its AI system, Apple AI, which still isn’t as integrated with apps as Android phones powered by Gemini.

In order to do more complex tasks, like creating a shopping list, it contacts ChatGPT instead.

Other updates, such as AI-powered translation in its AirPod earbuds, have arrived years after its competitors released similar products, and its long-awaited upgrade to Siri has been repeatedly delayed.

Mr Cook said he was pleased Mr Subramanya will “bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple”.

Apple said the leadership changes will make sure “Apple is poised to accelerate its work in delivering intelligent, trusted, and profoundly personal experiences”.