“Apple’s acquisition of Turi bolsters its capabilities in machine learning and AI. Apple is following the same pattern it did in acquiring expertise in processor design, which thrust it into a position of leadership in mobile processors within a few years,” Mark Hibben writes for Seeking Alpha. “Apple will pursue leadership in AI with equal vigor because AI is the ultimate killer app.”
“SA contributor BayesianLearner has also criticized Apple’s AI efforts, but wrote a very positive and informative take on the Turi acquisition: ‘Apple did not just buy some algorithms or a team, it bought a platform that can be used as the basis for future machine-learning services,'” Hibben writes. “Indeed, perhaps the most significant aspect of Turi’s offerings is that it advertises that its solutions are highly scalable from individual devices to cloud platforms.”
“Turi is just the latest in a string of acquisitions by Apple of companies with expertise or products related to AI. These include the purchase last October of VocalIQ, a UK startup specializing in natural speech recognition, and Perceptio specializing in image recognition. Perceptio is especially interesting in this context because Perceptio’s goals were to implement its algorithms on smartphones, according to Bloomberg. In January, Apple acquired Emotient, specializing in facial expression recognition,” Hibben writes. “Clearly, Apple’s ongoing interest in preserving the privacy of its customers, combined with its own processor expertise, make localized AI a natural offering. To some degree, Apple’s AI services will have to be distributed between individual devices and its cloud services. Search, maps, and AI based recommendations all necessarily have to be cloud based. But localized AI gives Apple’s powerful mobile processors a raison d’etre that perhaps they have lacked until now.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As Apple did in mobile processors, they will do in AI.
Siri on your iOS device, no Internet required, would be a game-changer.
SEE ALSO:
Apple buys machine-learning startup Turi for $200 million – August 6, 2016
VocalIQ acquisition hints at how Apple’s Siri plans to win the intelligent assistant war – May 30, 2016
Apple buys Emotient, maker of artificial-intelligence tech that reads emotion by analyzing facial expressions – January 7, 2016
Why did Apple buy a startup whose tech can read emotions via facial recognition? – January 7, 2016
Apple buys artificial intelligence natural language start-up VocalIQ – October 2, 2015
Apple acquires advanced artificial intelligence startup Perceptio – October 5, 2015