Apple was leading buyer of AI companies between 2016 and 2020
Apple was the top acquirer of artificial intelligence companies from 2016 to 2020, beating out companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
Credit: Apple
From 2016 to 2020, Apple acquired 25 artificial intelligence firms, according to a new report from GlobalData. The rest of the list of leading AI company buyers included Ireland-based Accenture, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook.
Some of the companies that Apple acquired include Silk Labs, Turi, Drive.ai, and Voysis. Apple doesn't disclose any details about its plans for acquisitions, though the AI company purchases are likely to bolster the company's machine learning and Siri-related technologies.
"Apple has gone on a shopping spree in efforts to catch up with Google (Google Assistant) and Amazon (Alexa). Siri was first on the market, but it consistently ranks below the two in terms of 'smartness,' which is partly why Apple is far behind in smart speaker sales," said GlobalData analyst Nicklas Nilsson.
Credit: GlobalData
Nilsson notes that the purchase of machine learning startup Inductiv was made to improve Siri data; Voysis was acquired to bolster Siri's natural language processing; and PullString's technology could improve Siri's integration with third-party iOS app.
"Apple also want to make sure to keep its strong position within wearables. It is the dominant player in smartwatches. The acquisition of Xnor.ai last year was made to improve its on-edge processing capabilities, which has become important as it eliminates the need for data to be sent to the cloud, thereby improving data privacy," the analyst said.
The Cupertino tech giant doesn't publicly disclose all of the acquisitions it makes, so it's possible that there are other companies that GlobalData missed.
Back in February, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company had acquired nearly 100 companies over the course of the last six years.
"We're not afraid to look at acquisitions of any size," Cook said, adding that Apple's focus is on "small, innovative companies that complement our products and help push them forward."
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Comments
At this point Apple should acquire Yelp for the data. I know it’s expensive but could be a good deal and feed all that info to Siri.
As for the government storm warnings, yes it should be available on your iPhone, but is it not on an iPad (or iPad Pro) with cellular ability? Really? That's surprising. Does your iPad lack cellular connectivity?
All AI basically needs big data so any dataset can be valid but you need some serious data management and storage capabilities too along with compute power to crunch the data itself.
IMO, having an 'assistant' capable of distinguishing between two languages at the same time even if the sentences were relatively simple would mark a huge step forward.
Agreed, let’s not hold our breaths. I remember being excited when they acquired Beats, bc beats had this interesting feature where you could ask it to play custom playlists on the fly, like, “play some chill EDM” or “play some party pop music,” or whatever. What happened to that?? They apparently married themselves to this idea of ‘the story of playlists,’ trying to tackle something before it was ready, while neglecting very simple improvements. The playlists have finally gotten good, but Apple Music could be so much more. Where tf is karaoke for the Apple TV?? Why are the social features worthless in apples most social app?? On and on.
I keep saying this, but it really is an insult to its customers for Apple to keep fumbling nearly every service they create for their ecosystem. The saddest part is, normies who aren’t Apple fans, who look at Apple as a whole, see the services as a joke, and thus see the hardware and OS in the same way, not understanding, at all, the quality, security, thoughtful design, integrity of the company, etc.