Renault announces the arrival of Luc Julia, the co-creator of Siri’s ancestor, but also an expert in augmented intelligence. This fan of Hawaiian shirts will have the mission of instilling technological culture within the functions and brands of the group.

Certainly, we would like to have the family photo of the next Renault steering committee: on the one hand, the traditional suits and ties; on the other, one of the most famous Hawaiian tech T-shirts worn by French-American Luc Julia. This new recruit becomes the head of R&D in the software part for all the brands of the automotive group.

Let’s face it, so far Luca de Meo (ex-Seat CEO), the head of Renault, has done quite well in his transfer window by poaching Gilles Le Borgne (R&D) and Gilles Vidal (Design), both former PSA employees. Without forgetting Christian Stein, the new communication director of the Renault brands, a former seat at Seat and close to Luca de Meo when he was president of the Spanish manufacturer.

But the masterstroke of the moment is the hiring of Luc Julia, co-inventor with Siri’s Adam Cheyer, Apple’s voice assistant. The Frenchman, who also has American nationality, is considered one of the popes of artificial intelligence, although he prefers to speak of “higher intelligence“.

Luc Julia leaves Samsung following the Korean giant’s decision to regroup its R&D teams in Seoul, a resolution “incompatible with your visionIn January 2021, while in Paris, he met Luca de Meo, after a phone call from the latter upon learning of his presence on French soil. It was during this evening, of which he will say that “It was one of the most pleasant moments he had with a boss”, that Luc Julia is seduced by Luca de Meo, that “wants to design technological objects and wants to make changes“A blessing for the Franco-American who wishes to offer.”technology for real people“.

To our colleagues from Challenges who interviewed him, the new head of the software division said he wanted “work in command mode on projects that can be integrated very quickly into vehicles, within six to twelve months“Luc Julia will play, according to Renault”,the role of expert in fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, human-machine interfaces, connectivity and software. It will supervise the research and development of these technologies and innovations with a view to their integration into the Group’s product and service plan.“.

However, it will continue to travel back and forth between Silicon Valley. “lung of global innovation“, and his office in Boulogne-Billancourt where he will spend ten days a month (source Challenges – paid article).

A tireless all-rounder

After having traveled the laboratories of the CNRS to Silicon Valley, through MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Luc Julia created and participated in the launch of some unicorns. In particular, Nuance Communications, Orb Networks or SRI International may be mentioned. Later, the graduate of the National School of Telecommunications (Paris) will work for HP (connected printers), Apple and even BMW (autonomous cars).

In 2012, he was hired by Samsung as Vice President of Innovation. It will be in charge of developing the Internet of Things (IoT), but also artificial intelligence. In 2018, he returned to France with the creation of the Samsung Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) in Paris.