Apple hires a University professor working on AI to fix Siri

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning have become the primary focus of the tech industry with almost every company investing in this future of technology. After Samsung’s recent acquisition of AI startup, Viv, Apple has also made a big move in the direction.

The Cupertino giant has hired a Carnegie Mellon University professor Russ Salakhutdinov to head up a team working on artificial intelligence.

Excited about joining Apple as a director of AI research in addition to my work at CMU. Apply to work with my teamhttps://t.co/U2hQl2GdhA

— Russ Salakhutdinov (@rsalakhu) October 17, 2016

The Professor will continue with his University duties alongside his new role at Apple and is also looking for more researchers to work in his team.

Though as of now, there is little clarity regarding Salakhutdinov’s new assignment with Apple, however, Recode observes that his recent studies have involved understanding the context behind questions.

This means that Siri would be at the center of new AI team. Notably, Apple’s virtual assistant has been facing a lot of flak lately for having lagged behind its competitors like Alexa and Google’s Assistant.

The Professor would surely add to the understanding powers of Siri and also other apps that use machine learning in iOS 10.