Apple prepares another leadership shake-up, this time affecting its secretive robotics group.

Bloomberg reported Apple is moving its robotics team away from AI chief John Giannandrea and to John Ternus. Ternus is Apple’s Senior Vice President for Hardware Engineering.

This is a move that comes just one month after Apple removed Siri’s oversight from Giannandrea after Tim Cook “lost faith in the ability” to “execute product development”. Siri is now being led by Mike Rockwell who created Apple Vision Pro and reports to Craig Federighi, the software boss. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple would move the robotics team under Ternus’s control “later in the month.” Ternus is currently the hardware engineering leader for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and Mac products. Ternus has also been a leading contender to replace Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

Apple’s robotics team is working on a number of products, including an iPad-like tabletop device with a robot arm that moves the screen around. Kevin Lynch is the team leader. He also worked on Apple Watch and Apple’s failed electric vehicle project. The team is also working on other advanced projects such as a “mobile robotic that can follow the user around their home.”

Along with the robotics led by Giannandrea team, there is a separate Apple team working on “robotics, smart home technologies, and more.” This team, led jointly by Brian Lynch and Matt Costello was already under Ternus’ purview. Both teams are now led by a single person after Gianandrea’s robotics duties were transferred to Ternus. Bloomberg reported that Ternus has now taken control of key AI teams. Ternus briefly managed the Vision Pro software team, until Rockwell moved that team with the software engineering organization. This coincided with Siri’s management shift last month.

Giannandrea’s AI/ML team will now have “more time to concentrate on underlying artificial-intelligence technology.”Bloomberg says that Giannandrea is not leaving the company.

Giannandrea’s team has not given any indication that he plans to leave soon. The people said that eight years after Apple merged its AI teams with Giannandrea into a single team, a breakup in the AI and ML group is more likely.

Read more at Bloomberg.

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