Big month, big changes: let’s look at November in the tech C-suite.
An Apple shakeup redefines the company’s approach to AI
Yes, technically this happened on December 1st, but we’re including it anyway. Apple has announced a big shake-up in the company’s AI business, with the resignation of Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence John Giannandrea. Amar Subramanya will take over.
Apple’s artificial intelligence efforts have not been as successful as those of its peers, CNBC reported, noting that the company’s Apple Intelligence platform has failed to gain traction with users. This is partly due to less investment in technology and the fact that Apple runs its AI on its own devices, rather than relying on the cloud to process workloads.
In leaving – he will serve as an advisor at the company until the spring – Giannandrea ends a nearly eight-year tenure at Apple. Before joining Apple, he spent a comparable amount of time at Google as senior vice president of engineering, as well as CTO at Metaweb Technologies and as chief technologist for Netscape, as well as other companies.
Subramanya was most recently CVP at Microsoft AI, where he worked for about six months before joining Apple. Before that, he spent 16 years at Google, where he completed his tenure as vice president of engineering for the company’s Gemini AI product.
OpenAI snags the leader of another competitor
The game of musical chairs played at the highest levels of the country’s major tech companies continued when Intel CTO and AI chief Sachin Katti joined OpenAI, where he will lead the company’s IT infrastructure team.
Katti has extensive experience leading technology companies. He co-founded Kumu Networks, served as CEO for over three years, and then led Intel’s AI business. In the meantime, he was a full-time professor of electrical engineering at Stanford.
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Greg Brockman, president and co-founder of OpenAI made the announcement on
Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel will take over Katti’s AI responsibilities.
From Boston Dynamics to Google DeepMind
Aaron Saunders joined Google DeepMind in November after a decades-long career at Boston Dynamics, most recently as CTO.
At DeepMind, Saunders will be vice president of hardware engineering for robotics. His hiring is seen by some as a sign of Google’s investment in robotics technology as the company continues to seek an edge in a crowded technology market.
In a post on LinkedIn Reflecting on nearly 22 years at Boston Dynamics, Saunders wrote that he joined DeepMind to integrate AI into the field of robotics.
“My task will be to help energize this effort, working with an incredible ecosystem of partners and addressing the fundamental hardware issues that exist between today and realizing the full potential of AGI in the physical world,” Saunders wrote.
Larry Summers leaves OpenAI
Economist Larry Summers was removed from OpenAI’s board in November after scrutiny of his ties to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
One of the many places where he’s no longer welcome? OpenAI’s board of directors, where Summers had served since November 2023. He joined after long days of back-and-forth running the company that also resulted in the reappointment of CEO Sam Altman (read our contemporary report for more).
A famous Harvard economist, Summers worked in the Clinton White House. His career was not without controversy even before his association with Epstein became toxic; he once suggested women were biologically incapable of achieving the same levels of success as men in the STEM field.
