Apple Acquires Machine Learning Startup Inductiv to Improve Siri
Apple has bought Inductiv Inc., a Canada-based machine learning startup, to work on Siri, machine learning and data science, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
The engineering team from Waterloo, Ontario-based Inductiv joined Apple in recent weeks to work on Siri, machine learning and data science. Apple confirmed the deal, saying it "buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."
Besides staff LinkedIn profiles, the startup doesn't have an online presence, but according to the report, the outfit has developed technologoy that uses AI to identify and correct errors in data, which is important for machine learning and belongs to the field of data science.
Apple has previously hired knowledgeable people in the field, including dozens of engineers from consulting firm Silicon Valley Data Science in 2018. Apple is understood to be upgrading the technology that powers Siri and other AI-related products and services.
As Gurman notes, Apple has acquired several other AI and data companies in recent years, including, Tuplejump, Laserlike, Turi and Perceptio. Just this year the company bought Voysis to improve Siri's speech recognition, virtual reality startup NextVR, and popular weather app Dark Sky.
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