On January 14, local time, it was reported that Apple is closing an office related to artificial intelligence business in San Diego, USA。Many employees in the office are at risk of being fired。

The San Diego office is part of a team called Data Operations Annotations。Employees at the office were told last Wednesday that they would move to Austin to merge with the same team's Texas office.。

Apple has told these employees that they have until the end of February to decide whether to move.。If they don't move, the employees will be laid off on April 26.。The organization currently has a total of 121 San Diego teams.。

It is reported that the work of the Data Operations Annotations team is responsible for monitoring the accuracy of Siri voice service and improving it.。Currently has offices in China, India, Ireland and Spain。The announcement to close the San Diego office was made by Christine Delippo, a senior deputy to Apple's artificial intelligence CEO, ohn Giannandrea, according to people familiar with the matter.。

An Apple spokesperson later confirmed the relocation decision, saying the company is bringing "the U.S. Data Operations Annotations team together at our campus in Austin, where most of the team is already based."。She added that everyone currently on the job will have the opportunity to continue working in the Austin office.。

Many San Diego employees were surprised.。Apple only recently told employees in the San Diego office that they would move to a new Apple campus in the area at the end of January, according to people familiar with the matter.。And earlier this month, Apple also distributed packages to employees for relocation.。Now, they've been told they have to move to Texas.。

Most of the affected employees are not willing to respond to the move to Texas request, according to people familiar with the matter.。While Apple says these employees can apply for internal transfers, for some employees in the office, a lack of engineering background will make it difficult for them to qualify for other positions.。These San Diego employees focus on Siri in Hebrew, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and French。

Apple move could cause dozens of employees to leave company。Apple says employees willing to move to Austin by the end of June will be able to keep their positions。The company will also provide employees with a $7,000 relocation allowance.。And those who eventually choose to leave will receive six months of health insurance and N + 4 weeks of severance pay, N refers to the number of years worked at Apple.。

As of last September, Apple had about 161,000 employees.。In the past two years, many large technology companies have started plans called massive layoffs, but Apple has rarely laid off workers, even if the layoffs are small.。In April last year, the company had cut some corporate retail and hiring positions.。

It is also worth mentioning that a small number of employees in the team have begun to assist Apple in moving to artificial intelligence products based on large language models (LLM).。These employees are now reviewing potential issues with Siri。The new version of Siri may have a more natural conversation ability and a more personalized user experience。