Apple will be combining its team that checks how Siri answers questions from San Diego with their team in Austin, Texas. There are 121 people on the San Diego team. Anyone who does not want to move to Texas might lose their job on April 26.
Bloomberg reported that Apple said the team listens to recordings of people using Siri to make sure it gives the right answers. Apple said the team “can keep their job at Apple if they move to Austin.”
The employees were surprised that they have to move. Apple earlier said the team may move to a different place in San Diego, not Texas. Apple told the team they have to decide by the end of January if they will move. Most don’t want to leave San Diego. It’s hard for them to suddenly move somewhere new. So some will probably lose their job, even though Apple isn’t officially firing them.
Apple will give people $7,000 if they move to help with the move. Anyone who doesn’t move will get four weeks of pay plus one more week for every year worked. They will also have health insurance for 6 months.
The San Diego team checks Siri in languages like English, Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic. Some think Apple is behind companies like Google in making voice assistants smarter. Apple is putting a lot of money into catching up. It recently shared tools for making AI on the internet and is making AI work better on the iPhone. In June, Apple may announce new plans for AI models.
