A new report from The Information today dives into the current structure of Apple’s AI organization, now overseen by Craig Federighi. According to the story, Federighi is responsible for Apple’s decision to start using models from outside companies like Google.
The report also corroborates previous reporting in saying that Federighi was an “AI skeptic” until trying OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022.
Bananas and snacks
The report explains that Federighi is “a penny-pincher who keeps a tight rein on salaries and hesitates to invest in risky projects when the payoff from them isn’t clear.” This is one of the reasons he didn’t buy into AI hype until 2022, and still remains one of the “potential risks to making Federighi head of AI.”
Federighi “tends to scrutinize every detail of his team’s expenses, down to their budgets for bananas and other office snacks,” the report says. “Federighi has chafed at the idea that hiring such people could require paying them more than what Apple’s executive team earn,” the report says.
Apple’s AI group is also concerned that Federighi will “rein in work travel and they will not be able to attend as many industry conferences.”
According to the report, Federighi’s lieutenants tried “for years” to “get him on board with AI.”
Apple engineers reportedly pitched Federighi on a feature that would use AI to “dynamically” change the iPhone home screen. Federighi’s belief was that such a feature would “disorient users,” who are used to knowing where their apps are located.” Apple does offer a Siri Suggestions widget that attempts to proactively surface apps on people’s iPhone home screens.
One of Federighi’s concerns regarding AI was its unpredictability. During design review meetings to go over software features, he wanted definitive answers from his team about how the features would behave. Federighi preferred software to be hardwired to act in certain ways rather than relying on algorithms that dynamically changed that behavior, said people who have worked with him.
Ultimately, the report says that Federighi came around on AI in late 2022 after trying ChatGPT. “After playing around with the OpenAI chatbot, Federighi told colleagues he had come to appreciate that kind of AI technology and tasked his teams with ways of including it in Apple products,” the report says.
Now, Federighi is overseeing Apple’s AI group. Mike Rockwell is in charge of Siri and reports to Federighi. In the past, Rockwell reportedly said Federighi’s approach to software development was “too conservative and Apple needed to think bigger.”
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has also reported extensively on the structure and inner workings of Apple’s AI and machine learning teams. Gurman’s reporting has detailed the rift between Federighi and John Giannandrea in depth over the last year.
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