Apple has hired Google's former head of search and artificial intelligence to lead its machine learning and AI strategy. John Giannandrea will report directly to chief executive Tim Cook, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. The appointment comes at the same time that the tech giant looks to develop its Siri digital assistant. It was reported last week that Apple was looking for more than 150 engineersto work on the platform. Mr Giannandrea joined Google in 2010 after it acquired the search start-up Metaweb, where he had served as chief technology officer. He previously worked as Netscape's chief technologist. Analysts say that Siri, which was first introduced on the iPhone 4S in 2011, has since fallen behind offerings from competitors, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant...

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