John Giannandrea, Apple's former head of artificial intelligence, completed his final days at Apple earlier this month. Following the announcement of his departure in December, Giannandrea appears to be preparing for his next role.

Apple's former head of artificial intelligence joins UK startup CuspAI for US expansion

Alex Konrad writes for Upstarts Media:

John Giannandrea, Apple’s long-time former head of artificial intelligence, is joining CuspAI, a scientific artificial intelligence startup. He will help CuspAI develop its US operations.

Giannandrea, who was the former head of Apple Intelligence, robotics, and projects like Siri, is expected to lead efforts to open an office in the Bay Area for the Cambridge, UK-based materials lab.

His consulting role does not yet have an official title, but this represents the first step in Giannandrea's return to the ecosystem after retiring from Apple two weeks ago.

According to reports, Giannandrea will help CuspAI build its US-based team. However, he is not expected to work solely for CuspAI.

The former head of Apple artificial intelligence is reported to be planning to divide his time by consulting for several different artificial intelligence startups.

It remains uncertain whether Giannandrea views consulting as a temporary work plan or intends to stay in this field until he finds the right full-time role.

Before joining Apple, Giannandrea served as the head of search and artificial intelligence at Google, making him a particularly significant acquisition for Apple.

However, his tenure is now seen by many as a disaster for Apple. Under Giannandrea's leadership, the company fell behind in artificial intelligence and ultimately became dependent on Google to power the new Siri and other upcoming Apple Intelligence features.