Apple has acquired artificial intelligence and machine learning startup Turi Inc, according to a latest report from Geekwire. The deal is said to be finalized at around $200 million.
Founded in 2009, Seattle based Turi provides tools that are meant to let developers easily scale machine learning applications. Led by Carlos Guestrin, the Turi team will remain in Seattle. The report touts that Apple has acquired Turi in order to improve Siri.
Apple provided a standard response for Turi acquisition,
Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.
This is not the first time Apple has acquired a AI or machine learning startup. The company had bought Emotient in January this year. In October last year, the company scooped up speech recognition start-up VocallQ to improve Siri and even bought Perceptio that focuses on developing technology that allows companies to run artificial intelligence systems on smartphones. Tech giants like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are increasingly focused on computer learning and artificial intelligence.