As part of the deal, Alexander Wong, an AI researcher at the University of Waterloo in Canada and co-founder of DarwinAI, joined Apple as its chief AI officer, according to Bloomberg. In its statement, the iPhone maker only said that “we sometimes acquire small technology companies,” without mentioning the DarwinAI acquisition.
Dozens of DarwinAI employees have joined Apple
Based in Waterloo, DarwinAI is an AI startup founded in 2017 that uses AI to improve visual inspection in the printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing process. However, Bloomberg reports that Apple decided to buy DarwinAI not because it was the AI startup’s ability to make AI systems “smaller and faster.” Since Apple is pursuing AI that runs on devices like the iPhone rather than in the cloud, DarwinAI’s know-how in miniaturizing and speeding up AI systems is useful.
Apple has made several AI-related acquisitions between 2016 and 2020, but compared to competitors like Google and Microsoft, the iPhone maker has yet to make any notable AI products. This is believed to stem from an underperforming AI development department, a lack of ambition from executives, and a cautious attitude towards AI.
Apple’s caution and underperforming development team have hampered its AI efforts with its voice assistant Siri. However, the company is still investing heavily in AI development and has reportedly discussed multi-year contracts with various media outlets to train its AI for creativity.
iOS 18 will include "new Siri based on large-scale language models like ChatGPT or Gemini", "AI integration with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers", "AI-powered autofill in the messaging app". Additionally, there are rumors of many other AI-related features such as automatic playlist creation with Apple Music using AI.
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