This week, Apple acquired Seattle-based startup, Xnor.ai, for a reported $200 million giving Apple more resources to bolster its AI’s capabilities.
Xnor.ai was founded by an AI2 incubator, an initiative started by the late Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft. In 2017 Xnor.ai received a seed funding of $2.5 million from Madrona Ventures, increasing its investment in 2018 to $12 million. By 2019 Xnor.ai made it to the Forbes AI 50: America’s Most Promising Artificial Intelligence Companies.
Xnor.ai are experts in the field of edge AI, likely being a key reason for their acquisition by a company reported being having a bigger focus on AI in the future. This isn’t the first Apple acquisition either within the AI field. They’ve made it quite clear they are homing in efforts on AI as they acquired 20 AI companies, more than any other major tech company in 2019, CBSInsights reports.
Most people know that Apple is a business that respects users’ privacy thanks to being, at times, criticised for how strict they are on releasing user’s data. However, having strict rules on user’s privacy has its disadvantages for how Apple can use AI on aspects including customer data.
Now armed with Xnor.ai capabilities and ability to run AI at the edge, Apple will be able to advance it’s the smart home platform for iOS and iPadOS while having the opportunity to bring in smart applications for their mobile phones, such as auto-segmenting photos and videos.
Apple now gives titans within the IoT and edge computing markets such as Amazon and Microsoft a more challenging competitor.
