According to the report Bloomberg, Apple is set to close its AI division in San Diego, California. Apple has decided to close its 121-person team in San Diego, California, which is responsible for improving the digital assistant Siri. The team, known as Data Operations Annotations, will be relocated to Austin, Texas to merge with the Texas-based team. Such a decision was made by Christine DeFilippo (Christine DeFilippo), deputy head of the artificial intelligence department of Apple John Giannandrea (John Giannandrea).

Team members received the message on Wednesday. They must make a decision by the end of February. The decision they have to make is whether or not to go to Austin. All employees who refuse to move will lose their jobs. This means that anyone who accepts the job will have to move to Texas. Fortunately, the company is not firing the team from San Diego, but is only merging it with the team from Austin.

Reasons for closure

The closings are part of a reorganization of Apple's artificial intelligence division. The company aims to consolidate its data operations annotation teams in the US into one location, where most of them already work. The San Diego-based team, which specializes in using Siri in multiple languages, including Hebrew, English, Portuguese, Arabic, French and several dialects of Spanish, will have the opportunity to continue their work in Austin.

Impact on employees

The move came as a surprise to employees in San Diego, who were informed of the upcoming move. Employees were given until the end of February to decide whether to move to Austin. For those who decided not to move, Apple set a release date of April 26. The affected team works in offices in China, India, Ireland and Spain, playing a critical role in evaluating the accuracy of Siri's responses to user queries.

Some of these employees will be forced to relocate with their families, while others will be forced to work apart from their families. While we don't expect all employees to agree to the move, it's good that Apple is doing everything it can to help save jobs. Starting in the summer of 2022, Apple is working hard to control costs and improve operational efficiency. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the layoffs will be a "last resort." Although Cook did not completely rule out the possibility of layoffs, Apple is never in a rush to lay off employees.

The future of Siri

Despite the closure of the AI ​​development team in San Diego, Apple remains committed to San Diego and its development. The company is investing heavily to catch up on AI, and is expected to announce its plans for large language models (LLM) in June. Apple has also told employees that they can apply for other positions at the company, but some feel they can't apply for many roles because of their non-engineering backgrounds.

Amen

The closing of Apple's 121-person team in San Diego marks a major reorganization of the company's artificial intelligence department. The move to Austin will consolidate the Data Operations Annotations teams, potentially impacting the future development and performance of Siri.