Apple has purchased an artificial-intelligence startup that could help make iPhone users’ interactions with the virtual assistant Siri more natural.
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A report from the Financial Times (paywall; via Re/code) has revealed that Apple had recently acquired a UK-based speech technology startup called VocalIQ. According to VocalIQ’s website, the company has developed a self-learning dialogue API built on 10 years of natural language research, belief tracking, decision making, and message generation.
Little else is known about the deal, such as how much Apple paid for the company. Financial Times also believes Apple could use the technology for its upcoming auto project, as VocalIQ specialized in in-car applications among other things. In particular, its technology puts greater effort into giving machines an understanding of the context surrounding any given command, something humans do well and machines can hardly manage at all.
“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our objective or plans”. The Wall Street Journal reported previous year that VocalIQ was working with General Motors on a system that enabled drivers to control their cars’ navigation and entertainment systems via voice. In another post, VocalIQ has noted that most of the big tech companies have produced vocal assistants that have fallen “well short of consumer expectations”, noting that solutions like Siri have “ended being used only as toys”.
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Apple has been steadily improving Siri since its debut in 2011.
