Apple is closing its 121-person artificial intelligence team related to its Siri voice assistant in San Diego, California, with a potential risk of termination for many employees, according to sources familiar, reports Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The Data Operations Annotations team, focused on refining Siri’s voice recognition capabilities, was informed of the impending relocation and merger with their Austin-based counterparts. Anonymous sources stated that employees have been given until the end of February to decide on the relocation offer.
According to the sources, Apple has set a termination date of April 26 for those who choose not to move to Austin. The affected team, which also has a presence in offices across China, India, Ireland, and Spain, plays a crucial role in evaluating Siri’s response accuracy to user queries. Christine DeFilippo, a leading deputy under Apple AI chief John Giannandrea, announced the San Diego group’s closure.
An Apple spokeswoman confirmed to Bloomberg the consolidation plans, emphasizing the company’s commitment to uniting its US Data Operations Annotations teams in Austin, where most team members are already located. She reiterated that all current employees are offered the chance to continue working with Apple in the Austin campus.
Despite the San Diego team’s shutdown, Apple maintains its dedication to the region, highlighting its substantial growth and ongoing recruitment to expand its engineering teams. In contrast, in other countries, Apple retains its teams in single offices.
The sudden notice of relocation was unexpected for the San Diego staff, particularly after preparations had begun for an anticipated move to a new local Apple campus. A majority of the affected workers have expressed reluctance to relocate, with concerns about eligibility for other roles within Apple due to their non-engineering skill sets.
The San Diego employees have been integral in adapting Siri for various languages, including Hebrew, English, Spanish dialects, Portuguese, Arabic, and French. This decision by Apple could lead to significant staff departures, an unusual trend for the company, which has largely steered clear of layoffs during uncertain times in the tech industry.
Apple is offering a $7,000 USD relocation stipend to those moving to Austin by the end of June and severance packages to those who depart, including extended health insurance benefits. The transition includes a shift for some employees towards AI projects involving large language models, with a strategic announcement from Apple anticipated in June.
Siri in its current state needs to be destroyed and overhauled from the ground up. Apple needs to improve Siri because the assistant is only good for setting timers, if and when it can actually understand what you’re saying.
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Siri “is only good for setting timers, if and when it can actually understand what you’re saying”?! This is the worst reporting I think I’ve ever read on an Apple news and analysis site. It is so ludicrous that I’m tempted to see it as a joke. Just in the last 24 hours Siri set HomeKit scenes for me, answered questions about the novel “Killers of the Flower Moon,” played some nice music for dinner, played podcasts, told me the weather forecast, and more. Oh yeah, it also set some timers while I was cooking.
True, that last sentence thrown in was like reading a Reddit comment. It’s true that Siri has fallen behind the competition and could use a renewal but still…
Google has better natural language and is better at personalized responses, entirely due to their ability to collect and utilize more private and personal data.
With that said, sometimes I wonder what are the use cases where it is so much better and that are so common that “Siri sucks” is the outcome…and is worth surrendering privacy.
No doubt. I read the site not because of its beautiful design and support for the Apple News app (/s), but because there are other outlets that miss out on some specific Apple announcements that affect Canadians. Otherwise this is as good as a blog most days. They like to drum up anger or frustration, and though I’m certain they know Siri is fairly capable they also know people will interact with media that makes them feel something… I assume its why they also take a political stance in a lot of things.
Agree that Siri isn’t great and that last paragraph is odd considering the direction of the article. Siri is certainly not as great as Apple advertises it but it’s come a long way. That being said, at least Siri connects my calls to Gary when I say “Call The Lamb Sauce”. 🙂
Live Voicemail is a gift from the heavens when you call, since you have difficulty with words and getting your point across 😀
Savage.
That last paragraph was just pure opinion and not fact. Siri works fine for most who use it propperly.
Sad that this website is clearly now a somewhat politically motivated blogging platform that sometimes posts news that can’t be found elsewhere. Often with more cringy, clickbait titles as time goes on.
This site started as a response to Canada not getting the original iPhone and then when rogers got it exclusively. Basically a protest site to voice the desire to bring it here.
But for years now, Gary has been an Android user, as are more of his writers. Not militant, religious Android users, but Android users nonetheless. That has an affect on the nuance and context of the material and certainly on the editorializing. It’s a big reason why the site is more of a general tech news site as opposed to a strictly Apple centric site.
False and false.
Hey Gary, wasn’t trying to say anything negative and no part was meant to be a criticism.
I do have to ask, what part are you saying is false? Your very first article here starts with “What’s up with Canada not having the iPhone already?!”
And there’s no shame in using Android.
Wasn’t started as a protest to Rogers not offering the iPhone. Still using an iPhone and always will 🙂