San Francisco: In a key development, Apple has hired John Giannandrea, Google's Head of Search and Artificial Intelligence (AI), to lead the company's Machine Learning (ML) and AI strategy.

Giannandrea, who took the role of Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google from Amit Singhal in early 2016, will report directly to Cook.

"Our technology must be infused with the values we all hold dear... John shares our commitment to privacy and our thoughtful approach as we make computers even smarter and more personal," The New York Times quoted an email from Cook to his staff as saying.

Giannandrea joined Google in 2010 after the company acquired his startup Metaweb Technologies.

According to arstechnica.com, Apple needs strong talent to improve its AI and ML efforts which lag behind its competitors like Amazon and Google.

Apple has invested in Siri and HomeKit to compete with Google Home and Alexa-based smart home systems.

Apple last year added an AI chip called Neural Engine to the A11 Bionic for the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X to work with the Image Signal Processor (ISP).

Apple has also posted several job openings for engineers at its different offices globally.

According to the data accumulated by Thinknum, the number of open positions that contain the term "Siri" has accelerated in recent weeks, with a current all-time high of 161 job listings.

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Barwani (MP), Jan 28 (PTI) Police on Wednesday detained a 17-year-old relative of a seven-year-old girl in Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh for allegedly raping her and killing her by throwing her into a canal, a police official said.

Superintendent of Police Jagdish Dawar told reporters that the body of the child was recovered from the Indira Sagar Canal on January 26, following information from residents of a village in the Rajpur police station area of the district.

He said the post-mortem report concluded severe injuries to the girl’s private parts and attributed her death to drowning.

Dawar said a 17-year-old boy, a close relative of the girl, has been detained in connection with the rape-murder.

The teenager told the police that he kidnapped the girl from her home on the night of January 25 while her family members were asleep, took her to a nearby canal and raped her, according to the official.

When the girl started screaming during the sexual assault, the minor boy allegedly threw her into the canal, with the intention of killing her. The child drowned in the water body, the official said.

The detained minor will be produced in a juvenile court.

A case has been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and an investigation is underway, he added.