Philip Houska Apple expanded its portfolio by acquiring smaller technology companies with another new addition. Now it is Tuplejump, an Indian startup specializing in machine learning. It could mainly serve to improve the initiative in artificial intelligence, which is very close to Apple.
The Californian company has traditionally commented on the whole situation in the way that it "occasionally buys smaller technology companies, but does not comment on the purpose of such an acquisition".
It is not yet known how much money was spent on this step, but one thing is clear - thanks to Tuplejump, whose software background can quickly process and analyze a large amount of data, Apple wants to continue the development of artificial intelligence, whether it is the continuous improvement of the voice assistant Siri or other services that increasingly use machine learning. Last time for example Photos in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra.
According to Bloomberg in addition, Apple has been working for several years on a competitor for Amazon Echo, i.e. a smart device for the home, which contains a voice assistant and can procure and control various elements of a smart home just by saying an instruction. Even in such a project, Tuplejump technology can certainly come in handy.
Amazon Echo became an unexpected hit after its arrival on the market, which is why Alphabet is already developing its own similar system in the form of Google Home, and Apple has also increased its attention to this project due to the success of its competitor. According to Bloomberg at Apple they are investigating how they could differentiate themselves from Echo and Home, there is speculation about facial recognition, for example. For now, however, everything is in the development stage and it is not certain whether the product will go into production.
However, India's Tuplejump is not the only startup focused on machine learning and artificial intelligence that is part of the Californian giant. For example, he already has under his wings specialists from Turi or startup Emotient, which examines human moods based on artificial intelligence and specific analysis. This could be part of a new Apple product as mentioned above.
