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Apple is maintaining its string of acquisitions of AI companies, this time to boost the efficiency of Siri.
The company has reported to Bloomberg that it has recently acquired Inductiv, a Waterloo, Ontario, Canada-based company that uses AI to correct data — which, in effect, enhances machine learning.
The engineering team based in Waterloo, Ontario, has joined Apple to work on Siri, machine learning, and data science. Apple confirmed the transaction, saying it “ buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we usually do not disclose our intent or plans. Inductiv developed technology that allows the use of artificial intelligence
to automate the detection and correction of data errors. It is important to have clean data for machine learning, a popular and powerful type of AI which helps improve the software with less human intervention.
Apple are dedicated to improving its voice assistant, most recently acquiring Voysis to enhance understanding of the natural language. Cleaner data will go a long way towards that goal by reducing the likelihood that Siri would be confused by garbage knowledge. Apple has recently been planning to update Siri, and made headlines by recruiting former Google AI boss John Giannandrea with the update in mind. With that said, it may be a while before Giannandrea reveals what they intend to do, and acquired startups like Inductiv. Apple progressively rolls more AI into its products through features such as Deep Fusion