Apple has been betting big on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for quite some time now. Today, the company has announced that it has acquired AI start-up Emotient for an undisclosed amount, according to a latest report from the Wall Street Journal.
Founded in 2012, Emotient uses artificial intelligence to read emotions via an analysis of the facial expressions. The company’s technology was being used by advertisers to weigh the strength and quality of a particular ad. Emotient allowed advertisers to know whether an ad was getting noticed and if people were responding to it positively or negatively. Currently, it is not known what Apple plans to do with the Emotient technology.
As per the Emotient’s website, “The company is at the vanguard of a new wave of emotion analysis that will lead to a quantum leap in customer understanding and emotion-aware computing.” Apple did not say anything about the acquisition but provided a standard company statement that reads, “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 bought an Artificial Intelligence company. 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.