Bloomberg: Apple replaces the head of its secretive robotics department

Apple has reshuffled several projects following the Siri woes. The secretive robotics division has been taken from John Giannandrea and placed under Apple senior vice president and head of hardware John Turnus, while the Siri team has been handed over to Mike Rockwell, head of Vision Pro, Bloomberg reports.

Giannandrea remains responsible for artificial intelligence and machine learning, but these changes will allow him to focus on new AI features, as he will no longer be managing multiple teams at the same time.

Apple is making staff changes to focus more on developing Apple Intelligence and competing with companies like Google and OpenAI. Kevin Lynch, who worked on the Apple Watch, will lead a new robotics team. The first product could be a robot with a manipulator with an iPad display. There are also plans to create a mobile robot on wheels to perform simple tasks.

Ternus, one of Apple's top executives who worked on products like the iPhone, iPad and Mac, will now also lead both robotics teams, which could signal a boost in robotics development at the company.