One thing, there is no denying it: Apple’s efforts to improve its services based on artificial intelligence they are constant and continuous (if she succeeds in these efforts, of course, a totally different discussion). Today the TechCrunch informed Ma's latest step on this long and winding road: the “purchase” of startup Init.ai, founded in 2015.
The company was made up of six employees and basically focused on automatic customer service software, with processing technologies and speech recognition and data collection from users. With the acquisition (which was actually a hiring of all the staff, a call “Acqui-hire”), we have a very interesting field for the evolution not only of Siri, but also of other important aspects of the Apple ecosystem, such as iOS 11's Business Chat.
The acquisition, it is said, apparently does not involve any type of intellectual property, Ma is more interested in the talents that founded the company. startup than in any specific technology developed by them. At the time of purchase, there were six people working at Init.ai; it is not known if absolutely all of them will start working in Cupertino, but the bet is that even because not so many people like that.
The Init.ai website has already announced that it will end its services on December 16 of this year, and its team will join a project "that touches the lives of countless people around the world". Ma is not mentioned at any time, however.
Apple has not commented on the matter, but we will bring more details of the acquisition as they appear.
