Apple enlists veteran executive to improve Siri and AI capabilities
What's the story
In a bid to bolster its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, Apple is making an internal staffing shift, according to Bloomberg.
The tech giant has brought on board Kim Vorrath, a veteran executive with 37 years of experience at Apple, to join the AI team to help improve Siri and Apple Intelligence suite.
Vorrath will be working under John Giannandrea, the head of AI at Apple.
New assignment
A brief look at the exec
Vorrath, who previously worked as a program management VP and played a key role in developing the Vision Pro headset, is now moving to the AI division.
Her meticulousness in managing software projects and ensuring deadlines are met has made her a well-known figure at Apple.
She is often called Apple's "bug wrangler" and a "powerful force" within the company.
Improvement plan
Company's response to criticism
The move to include Vorrath in the AI team comes after Siri was recently criticized for failing to deliver basic information on Super Bowl results.
Apple has also been criticized for its Apple Intelligence notification summary feature, which has sometimes generated misleading headlines.
In a bid to address this, the company is temporarily removing notification summaries for news and entertainment apps in its upcoming iOS 18.3 update.
Upcoming updates
Future enhancements for Siri and Apple's AI
Despite integrating OpenAI's ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence, Siri continues to have issues.
However, the company plans to introduce more features in an iOS 18.4 update and is rumored to launch an LLM version of Siri in iOS 19.
This new version is expected to be on par with ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.
Strategic shift
Vorrath's impact and future role in AI team
Vorrath's transition to the AI team also shows Apple's growing interest in AI.
Having a reputation for organizing engineering groups and introducing new processes, Vorrath will likely play a key role in enhancing Siri and Apple's in-house AI models.
As per Bloomberg, this strategic move was revealed by Giannandrea in a memo, emphasizing the company's focus on improving its AI capabilities.