Apple has reportedly acquired artificial intelligence start-up Turi in a deal that could bolster its Siri digital assistant and other offerings.
Apple bought Seattle-based Turi, which makes artificial intelligence and machine learning toolkits for other applications, for around $200m (£153m), according to a report by Geekwire, which cited unnamed sources.
The company declined to confirm the report. “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Apple stated.
Apple has opened Siri to third-party developers and integrated the feature into MacOS, indicating it plans to expand the tool.
Turi could also be used to improve the music, film, book and app recommendations in Apple’s app stores.
Turi’s products are aimed at developers, allowing them to add AI capabilities in areas including recommendations, fraud detection, customer sentiment prediction and customer segmentation.
The company began as an open source project at Carnegie Mellon in 2009 under Carlos Guestrin, now on the faculty of the University of Washington under a machine learning professorship endowed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Apple’s recent acquisitions include two AI startups, Perceptio and VocalIQ, which it bought last year.
In its latest quarterly earnings statement, chief executive Tim Cook said the company has focused its AI efforts on “the features that best enhance the customer experience”.
How much do you know about the cloud? Try our quiz!
Workforce blow. Newly privatised Toshiba has embarked on a 'revitalisation plan' that will entail the…
European Commission opens an official child safety investigation into Facebook and Instagram-owner Meta Platforms
Hundreds of AI and cloud engineers are being offered relocation out of China by Microsoft,…
Workers at unionised Apple store in Maryland vote to authorise first ever strike, after delays…
Elon Musk loses bid to avoid court order to force him to testify in SEC…
Explore how cutting-edge technologies are reshaping decision-making, driving innovation, and propelling businesses into the data-driven…