Apple hires Carnegie Mellon AI researcher to work on its own AI tech
A well-known AI researcher, Russ Salakhutdinov of Carnegie Melon University, is joining Apple to direct some of the company's own efforts in the field.
Salakhutdinov announced his new job via Twitter on Monday, simultaneously sharing a link to an Apple listing calling for research scientists familiar with machine learning. Salakhutdinov's role will come in addition to his work at Carnegie Mellon.
Bloomberg noted that Salakhutdinov previously worked at MIT and the University of Toronto, and has specialized in neural networks, which can be essential for voice and image recognition. Some of his past research was funded by the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Samsung.
Apple has dramatically accelerated its machine learning efforts in the past couple of years, establishing a special division and buying firms in the sector such as Turi and Perceptio. A new Japanese R&D facility will tackle the concept.
CEO Tim Cook has suggested that AI will eventually become omnipresent across Apple products. Salakhutdinov might be particularly useful for improving Siri, which some have criticized as a comparatively "dumb" virtual assistant next to ones from companies like Google. Apple's strict privacy standards, though, have made it harder to expand Siri's abilities, since systems like Google Assistant can fetch more data -- including user data -- and thereby offer a way to analyze and improve AI responses.
Salakhutdinov announced his new job via Twitter on Monday, simultaneously sharing a link to an Apple listing calling for research scientists familiar with machine learning. Salakhutdinov's role will come in addition to his work at Carnegie Mellon.
Bloomberg noted that Salakhutdinov previously worked at MIT and the University of Toronto, and has specialized in neural networks, which can be essential for voice and image recognition. Some of his past research was funded by the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Samsung.
Apple has dramatically accelerated its machine learning efforts in the past couple of years, establishing a special division and buying firms in the sector such as Turi and Perceptio. A new Japanese R&D facility will tackle the concept.
CEO Tim Cook has suggested that AI will eventually become omnipresent across Apple products. Salakhutdinov might be particularly useful for improving Siri, which some have criticized as a comparatively "dumb" virtual assistant next to ones from companies like Google. Apple's strict privacy standards, though, have made it harder to expand Siri's abilities, since systems like Google Assistant can fetch more data -- including user data -- and thereby offer a way to analyze and improve AI responses.
Comments
I find it very, very difficult to believe how much better Google Now is than Siri. I mean, I've purposely handicapped my Google Now queries to try and make it a fair fight, but to no avail. I can literally sneeze into Google Now and it would know that I really meant, "Find me a flight that leaves San Francisco tomorrow between 3 pm and 6 pm and gets me into Dallas non-stop."
Google Now: Done.
Siri: Do you want to call your contact Francisco Jones?
The recognition has improved, but the understanding of context is the same sad it was two years ago. It understands a limited set of commands as long as you phrase them in a particular way. I fail to see the intelligence in that.
And with HomeKit it gives you a chance to use that content motivator to become the home hub for automation and eventually use the content leg up as a subscription way to sell them a great AIO TV. Sport, movies, TV, automation, gaming and apps all from a centrally located AIO television. Throw in a bit of live news and you're cooking.