When Apple Inc. was looking to hire new management for its Siri and artificial intelligence groups, it went after a pair of high-profile targets: Google’s top brass overseeing search.
Apple succeeded in attracting one of those executives: John Giannandrea, who had served as Google’s search and AI chief, bringing him on as head of Siri and machine learning in 2018. That much is known. But Apple at one point also attempted to hire Giannandrea’s top search deputy and eventual successor, Ben Gomes, according to documents filed by the Department of Justice in its ongoing antitrust lawsuit against Google.