“Apple is growing its team in Seattle by creating a new hub for artificial intelligence research,” Anita Balakrishnan reports for CNBC.
“Apple’s expansion will also bolster a relationship with researchers at the University of Washington, which on Thursday announced a $1 million endowment named after Carlos Guestrin, a member of the machine learning team at Apple,” Balakrishnan reports. “‘The bar is high, but we’re going to be hiring as quickly as we can find people that meet our high bar, which is exciting,’ Guestrin told GeekWire, which first reported on the expansion.”
Balakrishnan reports, “Washington state has seen the fastest growth outside of California for Apple’s staff over the past two years, the company told GeekWire.”
Read more in the full article here.
“Other engineering efforts taking place in Apple’s Seattle office include groups focused on Maps, iCloud and iTunes,” Todd Bishop reports for GeekWire. “The company’s team in Seattle collaborates ‘extensively’ with groups in Cupertino, including efforts to build new AI features into upcoming Apple products, Guestrin said.”
“‘There’s a great opportunity for AI in Seattle. It’s the place to do it,’ said Guestrin, the University of Washington professor and Turi founder, who joined Apple with its acquisition of the machine learning startup last year,” Bishop reports. “Last fall, after Apple acquired Turi, sources close to the deal told GeekWire that the purchase price was around $200 million, a sizable startup acquisition that underscores the significance of machine learning and artificial intelligence to the company.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re excited at the potential and, while slow, the progress of Siri in recent years has been momentous. Hopefully, Siri and Apple’s many other AI endeavors (machine learning is pervasive in many Apple services) progresses even more quickly!
We’ve been seeing over the last five years a growth of this inside Apple. Our devices are getting so much smarter at a quicker rate, especially with our Apple design A series chips. The back ends are getting so much smarter, faster, and everything we do finds some reason to be connected. This enables more and more machine learning techniques, because there is so much stuff to learn, and it’s available to [us]… We use these techniques to do the things we have always wanted to do, better than we’ve been able to do. And on new things we haven’t be able to do. It’s a technique that will ultimately be a very Apple way of doing things as it evolves inside Apple and in the ways we make products… Machine learning is enabling us to say yes to some things that in past years we would have said no to. It’s becoming embedded in the process of deciding the products we’re going to do next. — Phil Schiller, August 2016
SEE ALSO:
Apple transforms Turi into dedicated machine learning division to build future product features – August 31, 2016
An exclusive inside look at how artificial intelligence and machine learning work at Apple – August 24, 2016
Apple rumored to be taking big piece of Seattle-area office market in expansion – August 12, 2016
Why Apple will become a leader in artificial intelligence – August 8, 2016
Apple buys machine-learning startup Turi for $200 million – August 6, 2016
Apple’s cutting-edge ‘differential privacy’ is opt-in – June 24, 2016
Apple’s cutting-edge ‘differential privacy’ offers unique option for technology users – June 20, 2016
Apple’s use of cutting-edge tech will peek at user habits without violating privacy – June 16, 2016
Apple touts Artificial Intelligence in iOS and opens ‘crown jewels’ to developers – June 14, 2016
Smartphones to die out within five years, replaced by artificial intelligence – survey – December 9, 2015
Apple’s extreme secrecy retarding its artificial intelligence work – October 30, 2015
Apple hires NVIDIA’s artificial intelligence director – October 24, 2015
Apple acquires advanced artificial intelligence startup Perceptio – October 5, 2015
Apple buys artificial intelligence natural language start-up VocalIQ – October 2, 2015
You go where the talent lives.
But what’s so special about Seattle/Microsoft that they’re any better at artificial intelligence research than say Cambridge, MA or Cambridge, UK? I can’t imagine.
Thank goodness..Siri is so dumb and clunky at this point i don’t even use it. Someone at Apple needs to take the steering wheel on this pronto..