Apple purchased one more company that will help it bring more intelligent features to its iPhone and iPad in the future, after confirming last week it bought British start-up VocalIQ that might help it boost the powers of Siri. The new acquisition will also likely be used to expand further the iPhone’s smart feature, with a massive trick. Unlike Google, which needs access to a treasure trove of personal data to enable cool Google Now and other automated features, Apple might not require access to that much information about the user.
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According to Bloomberg, the company bought Perceptio, a start-up that develops artificial intelligence (AI) tech. Perceptio’s take on AI is different than others’, as the enterprise can let users “run advanced artificial intelligence systems on smartphones without needing to share as much user data.”
Nicolas Pinto and Zak Stone are the company’s leaders both working on developing image-recognition systems using deep learning. Perceptio uses deep learning to teach computers – in this case, future iPhones, and iPads – to identify and classify sensory input. The company has been developing techniques to run such advanced AI image-classification systems on smartphones “without having to draw from large external repositories of data,” as Bloomberg puts it.
Apple didn’t comment on why it purchased Perceptio or how much the AI company cost. “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Apple spokesman Colin Johnson said.
