SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Apple is moving one of its artificial intelligence teams from San Diego to Austin, Texas, the tech giant confirmed to ABC 10News via email.
In a statement, Apple said its data operations annotation team, which specializes in improving Siri, is being relocated.
Apple told 10News everyone on the team will have the opportunity to keep their role with the company in Austin; however, anyone who doesn't move will likely be laid off.
"We are deeply committed to San Diego, where we have grown significantly, and are continuing to hire as we expand our world-class engineering teams," Apple's statement says.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the team consisted of 121 employees, and they'll have until the end of February to decide whether to relocate and stay with the company.
The Siri experts were in charge of the AI assistant's use in several languages, including Hebrew, English, Portuguese, French, Arabic and multiple dialects of Spanish, Bloomberg reported.
Bloomberg also reported Apple is offering $7,000 relocation stipends. Additionally, employees who decide to leave the company will receive four weeks of severance pay, plus an extra week for every year they worked for Apple, according to the report.
