Apple snags top AI researcher from Google

Apple might be building a burgeoning media empire on top of its long-running hardware business, but the iPhone maker seems to be ramping up its AI efforts, too.

Former Google AI researcher Ian Goodfellow has left the search engine giant in favor of Apple, as first noted by CNBC. It was all but certain thanks to an update on Goodfellow's LinkedIn page, but Google separately confirmed it to CNBC. 

Apple brought in another high-profile Google AI executive in John Giannandrea a year ago.

Goodfellow spent two years at Google as an AI research scientist, but his new title at Apple is director of machine learning for Apple's special projects group. There are plenty of possibilities for what Goodfellow will work on at Apple, of course. Siri immediately comes to mind as the most visibly AI-driven thing Apple makes, and the virtual assistant could always use more improvements. Read more...