Tag Archives: Board & Management Changes

Apple’s Johny Srouji could continue the company’s executive exodus, according to report

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Apple's Johny Srouji may be the latest company executive to seek greener pastures, according to a report from Bloomberg. The report said that Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies, told Tim Cook that he is "seriously considering leaving in the near future."

While the report didn't mention if Srouji has another job lined up, Bloomberg's sources claimed that he wants to join another company if he leaves Apple. Srouji joined the company in 2008 to develop Apple's first in-house system-on-a-chip and eventually led the transition to Apple silicon.

If Srouji leaves Apple, he would be the latest in a string of departures of longtime execs. At the start of the month, Apple announced that John Giannandrea, the company's senior vice president for machine learning and AI strategy, would be retiring from his role in spring 2026. A couple of days later, Bloomberg reported that the company's head of interface design, Alan Dye, would be leaving for a role at Meta. Adding to those exits, Apple also revealed that Kate Adams, who has been Apple's general counsel since 2017, and Lisa Jackson, vice president for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, will both be leaving in early 2026.

The shakeup at the executive level comes after Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that Cook may not be preparing for his own departure as CEO next year. Gurman's prediction counters a report from the Financial Times that claimed that Apple was accelerating succession plans for Cook with an expected stepping down sometime next year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apples-johny-srouji-could-continue-the-companys-executive-exodus-according-to-report-200750252.html?src=rss

Apple hires Google veteran as its new vice president of AI

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Apple has tapped AI researcher Amar Subramanya, a longtime Google exec who was most recently corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, as its new VP of AI. The company also announced that current AI exec, John Giannandrea, will retire in 2026.

Subramanya, who Apple describes as a "renowned AI researcher," spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Gemini. He left Google earlier this year for Microsoft. In a press release, Apple said that Subramanya will report to Craig Federighi and will "be leading critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation." 

It's not entirely surprising that Apple is shaking up its AI leadership. Giannandrea joined Apple in 2018 after a stint at Google that included VP of search. While his hiring was seen as a major coup for Apple at the time, the company has faced some significant setbacks since. Most notably, its failure to deliver a more personalized, AI-centric version of Siri that it previewed last year. Giannandrea, who oversaw Siri for years, has shouldered much of the blame for the delays. Bloomberg reported earlier this year that Apple CEO Tim Cook had "lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development" and put other executives in charge of Siri instead. 

In a statement, Cook said he was "thankful" for Giannandrea's contributions to the company and credited Federighi with pushing the revamped Siri forward. "In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar’s joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year.”


This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-hires-google-veteran-as-its-new-vice-president-of-ai-234820021.html?src=rss

Mastodon’s founder is no longer its CEO

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Mastodon's founder Eugen Rochko has officially stepped down as CEO. The move comes ten months after the company announced it would transition into a nonprofit entity and that Rochko would leave his post. Rochko will take on an advisory role with the company. 

In a blog post about this decision, Rochko pointed to a desire for guardrails to avoid becoming another egotistical founder "sabotaging thriving communities." He added, "But it would be uncouth for me to pretend that there isn’t some self-interest involved. Being in charge of a social media project is, turns out, quite the stressful endeavour, and I don’t have the right personality for it." 

In his place, Felix Hlatky has taken on the role of executive director. Hlatky has worked at Mastodon since March 2020 and plans to focus on expanding the team, long-term financial stability and making it easier to run servers safely and efficiently.

Currently, Mastodon is operating as a nonprofit in the US, but aims to set up a permanent home base as a nonprofit in Belgium, known as an AISBL. Mastodon previously held nonprofit status in Germany but lost that it last year. 

Mastodon has pursued outside funding since its announced transition to a nonprofit. It shared that Stock Exchange co-founder Jeff Atwood and his family gave the organization €2.2 million ($2.5 million). Part of that influx of cash has gone toward hiring new employees in its engineering, marketing, operations and product teams. Rochko also received a one-time €1 million ($1.2 million) compensation after ten years of "taking less than a fair market salary." 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/mastodons-founder-is-no-longer-its-ceo-143011438.html?src=rss

Apple is reportedly getting ready to replace Tim Cook as early as next year

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According to the Financial Times, Tim Cook may be ready to leave his position as soon as next year, and Apple's board and senior executives have ramped up their preparations to secure his replacement.

Cook, who has been at the helm of Apple for more than 14 years, succeeded Steve Jobs and led the company to a market cap of more than $4 trillion. Cook's tenure since 2011 has overseen the introduction of hardware, including Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro, but also services like Apple Arcade and Apple TV+. According to the Financial Times's sources, Apple's senior vice president of engineering, John Ternus, will most likely take on the CEO role, but this decision hasn't been finalized yet. Ternus has been with Apple since 2001 as part of its Product Design team and eventually stepped into a vice president role within the Hardware Engineering division, where he played a heavy role in the company's transition to Apple silicon.

According to the Financial Times, Apple isn't planning to announce the new CEO before its January earnings report. However, the report also noted that this announcement would come earlier in the year to allow the leadership team to transition smoothly in time for all of Apple's annual events. Earlier this year, Apple also announced Sabih Khan as the new chief operating officer, taking over for Jeff Williams.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-is-reportedly-getting-ready-to-replace-tim-cook-as-early-as-next-year-171407974.html?src=rss

Waymo raises $5.6 billion to fund Austin and Atlanta expansion

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Waymo has raised another huge chunk of change from investors. The company announced on its blog that it secured an “oversubscribed investment round” of $5.6 billion in funding, the largest of which came from Google's parent company Alphabet.

The company is working with Uber to expand to Austin and Atlanta by the early part of next year. Waymo says it plans to use this latest infusion of capital for the expansions. This latest round brings Waymo’s total capital fundraising to $11.1 billion, with the $5.5 billion it picked up in two earlier rounds in 2020 and 2021.

Waymo currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix with a curbside transport service for Sky Harbor International Airport through its Waymo One driving system for businesses. The company announced it’s also started offering “fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco.”

The new funding will also help Waymo advance its Waymo One system, an adaptable autonomous driving system for different businesses. Waymo wrote on its blog it plans to “support a variety of business applications over time” through Waymo One.

Alphabet ponied up $5 billion for Waymo back in July as part of what Alphabet’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat called a “multi-year investment.” The driverless vehicle fleet logged a total of 25 million miles in July outpacing companies like Uber, which sold its self-driving unit four years ago before joining forces with Waymo.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-raises-56-billion-to-fund-austin-and-atlanta-expansion-172031686.html?src=rss

Waymo raises $5.6 billion to fund Austin and Atlanta expansion

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Waymo has raised another huge chunk of change from investors. The company announced on its blog that it secured an “oversubscribed investment round” of $5.6 billion in funding, the largest of which came from Google's parent company Alphabet.

The company is working with Uber to expand to Austin and Atlanta by the early part of next year. Waymo says it plans to use this latest infusion of capital for the expansions. This latest round brings Waymo’s total capital fundraising to $11.1 billion, with the $5.5 billion it picked up in two earlier rounds in 2020 and 2021.

Waymo currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix with a curbside transport service for Sky Harbor International Airport through its Waymo One driving system for businesses. The company announced it’s also started offering “fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco.”

The new funding will also help Waymo advance its Waymo One system, an adaptable autonomous driving system for different businesses. Waymo wrote on its blog it plans to “support a variety of business applications over time” through Waymo One.

Alphabet ponied up $5 billion for Waymo back in July as part of what Alphabet’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat called a “multi-year investment.” The driverless vehicle fleet logged a total of 25 million miles in July outpacing companies like Uber, which sold its self-driving unit four years ago before joining forces with Waymo.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-raises-56-billion-to-fund-austin-and-atlanta-expansion-172031686.html?src=rss

Craig Duncan to succeed Alan Hartman as Xbox Game Studios head

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The head of Xbox Game Studios Alan Hartman is set to retire at the end of November, marking an end to 30 years working at Microsoft. Appointed to succeed him is Craig Duncan, the studio head of Rare, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2002. To fill in for Duncan’s eventual departure from the studio, Joe Neate and Jim Horth will take over as co-leads of Rare, as seen in an internal memo seen by The Verge:

In his new role, Craig will continue to focus on helping our studios deliver high-quality, differentiated game experiences that can grow into successful franchises and reach more players by investing in new IP. Craig will report to me and join the Game Content and Studios leadership team, working closely with Alan during the transition. The existing XGS leadership team Alan established will remain intact and report to Craig.

I am also pleased to announce that Joe Neate and Jim Horth will take over as co-leads of Rare. Their leadership has played a crucial role in Rare’s growth, and I am confident they will elevate the studio and its games to even greater heights.

Interestingly, Hartman had only had his job as head of Xbox Game Studios for less than a year. Hartman led Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 for almost two decades before being pulled in to replace former Xbox Games Studio head Matt Booty last year. His retirement is somewhat surprising, but since it’s not due to any controversies in the company, it’s likely just a case of him wanting to retire from 30 years at Microsoft.

This change of heads comes about a month after Microsoft laid off 650 employees. These layoffs are related to its decision in 2022 to acquire Activision Blizzard. While no games are canceled, this change of heads may signify a shift in Xbox Game Studios' future plans.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/craig-duncan-to-succeed-alan-hartman-as-xbox-game-studios-head-170254040.html?src=rss

CTO Mira Murati is the latest leader to leave OpenAI

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Mira Murati has departed OpenAI, where she had been the chief technology officer since 2018. In a note shared with the company and then posted publicly on X, Murati said that she is exiting "because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration."

Murati gained additional visibility as a face for the AI company when she briefly assumed CEO duties in November 2023 when the board of directors fired Sam Altman. Altman returned to the helm and Murati resumed work as CTO. However, her departure follows on two other notable exits. Last month, president and co–founder Greg Brockman and co-founder John Schulman both announced that they would be stepping away from OpenAI. Brockman is taking a sabbatical and Schulman is moving to rival AI firm Anthropic.

Here is the full text of Murati's statement:

Hi all,

I have something to share with you. After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAl.

My six-and-a-half years with the OpenAl team have been an extraordinary privilege. While I’ll express my gratitude to many individuals in the coming days, I want to start by thanking Sam and Greg for their trust in me to lead the technical organization and for their support throughout the years.

There’s never an ideal time to step away from a place one cherishes, yet this moment feels right. Our recent releases of speech-to-speech and OpenAl o1 mark the beginning of a new era in interaction and intelligence - achievements made possible by your ingenuity and craftsmanship. We didn’t merely build smarter models, we fundamentally changed how Al systems learn and reason through complex problems.

We brought safety research from the theoretical realm into practical applications, creating models that are more robust, aligned, and steerable than ever before. Our work has made cutting-edge Al research intuitive and accessible, developing technology that adapts and evolves based on everyone’s input. This success is a testament to our outstanding teamwork, and it is because of your brilliance, your dedication, and your commitment that OpenAl stands at the pinnacle of Al innovation.

I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration. For now, my primary focus is doing everything in my power to ensure a smooth transition, maintaining the momentum we’ve built.

I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to build and work alongside this remarkable team. Together, we’ve pushed the boundaries of scientific understanding in our quest to improve human well-being. While I may no longer be in the trenches with you, I will still be rooting for you all.

With deep gratitude for the friendships forged, the triumphs achieved, and most importantly, the challenges overcome together.

Mira

In a post on X, Altman has revealed that the company's Chief Research Officer, Bob McGrew, and VP of Research, Barret Zoph, are also leaving the company. He said they made the decisions "independently of each other and amicably," but it made sense to "do this all at once" for a smooth handover. OpenAI's leadership will go through some changes as a result, with Mark Chen, the Head of Frontiers Research, being named as Research SVP. Research Scientist Josh Achiam has been named as Head of Mission Alignment, while Mark Knight, the Head of Security, is now the Chief Information Security Officer. 

Update, September 26, 2024, 7:03AM ET: This post has been updated to include information about the other staffers leaving OpenAI.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/cto-mira-murati-is-the-latest-leader-to-leave-openai-200230104.html?src=rss

ChatGPT has doubled its weekly active users to 200 million

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ChatGPT now has 200 million weekly active users, according to OpenAI. That represents a doubling of the weekly audience of 100 million the company announced last November. A representative from the company told Engadget that API usage has also doubled since the July release of GPT-4o mini.

User numbers aren't the only big growth OpenAI has seen over the past year. CEO Sam Altman reportedly told employees this summer that the company's annualized revenue — which takes a monthly revenue figure and stretches it out over a whole year — had reached $3.4 billion, up from $1.6 billion at the end of 2023.

Separately from today's usercount announcement, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft are in talks to invest in a new fundraising round for OpenAI. The only detail the report had about the scale of this funding round was that it would push OpenAI's valuation above $100 billion.

Microsoft has invested $13 billion into the AI business since 2019, while Apple revealed that ChatGPT will form a large part of its upcoming Apple Intelligence push. Both Microsoft and Apple gave up their seats on OpenAI's board of directors this summer after the European Commission raised antitrust concerns about the businesses' close relationships.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chatgpt-has-doubled-its-weekly-active-users-to-200-million-233037951.html?src=rss

Two more OpenAI leaders are leaving the company

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Two key OpenAI personnel are leaving the company, while another one is taking a months-long leave of absence. As reported by The Information, OpenAI president Greg Brockman is taking a sabbatical, while his fellow co-founder John Schulman is bidding the company farewell and joining its rival Anthropic. Peter Deng, its VP for consumer product who joined last year, is leaving OpenAI, as well. Deng used to lead product developments at Meta and Uber.

In a post on X/Twitter, Brockman said his leave of absence will last through end of year and that it's his "first time to relax" since the founding of OpenAI nine years ago. He also reportedly assured staff members that he's coming back after his vacation. Brockman temporarily left OpenAI last year when the company's board ousted its CEO, Sam Altman. They were both reinstated just a few days later, whereas the board was disbanded and replaced.

John Schulman also posted the note he sent to OpenAI staff on X, where he said that his departure stems from his "desire to deepen [his] focus on AI alignment" and to "return to hands-on technical work." He clarified that he wasn't leaving OpenAI due to lack of support for alignment research and that the company's executives have apparently been "very committed to investing in this area." At OpenAI, Schulman helped lead the post-training team that refined its large language models. After the company disbanded the "Superalignment" team that was in charge of steering powerful AI models that could pose a threat to humanity in the future, OpenAI said Schulman would be in charge of any future safety efforts. 

These departures follow several major previous changes in OpenAI's rank of leaders. Before the Superalignment team was disbanded, Jan Leike, one of its heads, wrote on X that "safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products" within the company over the past years. Company co-founder and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever also left in May. He was involved in Altman's dismissal as a board member, though he later said that he regretted his participation in the board's actions. While he remained Chief Scientist after the event, he reportedly never truly returned to his duties. The Information also notes that OpenAI recently hired its first CFO and chief product officer, which may have had an effect on Deng's role within the company. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/two-more-openai-leaders-are-leaving-the-company-110012003.html?src=rss