Apple launches residency program for AI/ML experts

Following Apple's John Giannandrea saying Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is now deeply connected with everything the company does, Apple has launched a new residency for experts in the field. The year-long program is designed to bring experts from across many backgrounds, and have them become involved in the company's key AL/ML projects.

It was announced on Twitter by researcher Michael Rennaker, and first spotted by iMore. Apple has now posted a job description online.

"The year-long program will welcome residents with STEM graduate degrees or equivalent industry experience, software development backgrounds, and niche expertise — like design, linguistics, neuroscience, or psychology," says Apple in the description.

"The program aims to invest in the resident's technical and theoretical machine learning development, and help advance their professional careers," it continues. "[Residents will] gain hands-on experience working on high-impact projects with our machine learning teams."

Apple is recruiting for the residency now and is advertising positions at many locations ranging from Cupertino and Seattle, to Cambridge and Zurich. No start date has been specified as yet, but the year-long program is planned to run from summer 2021.

Software products such as Siri are Apple's most visible use of AI and ML. However, the technology is increasingly being deployed across everything Apple does, from handwriting and speech recognition, to analyzing images and parsing natural language text.