Apple Hiring for New Machine Learning Division Following Turi Acquisition

[MacRumors]

Following its recent acquisition of Turi, a Seattle-based machine learning and artificial intelligence startup, a pair of new job listings reveal that Apple has spun the company into its new machine learning division.

Apple is looking to hire data scientists and advanced app developers, based in Seattle, who together will help build proof-of-concept apps for multiple Apple products to deliver new and improved user experiences where possible.

Turi is the new machine learning division at Apple. We build tools that enable teams across Apple to develop machine learning solutions to power amazingly intelligent user experiences. We are looking for new energetic members to join our ML Applications team to collaborate with product teams on a variety of proof-of-concept projects.

Many of those improvements driven by machine learning were highlighted in a recent profile about Apple's artificial intelligence efforts, including improved Siri accuracy, app suggestions, and several other examples:

You see it when the phone identifies a caller who isn't in your contact list (but did email you recently). Or when you swipe on your screen to get a shortlist of the apps that you are most likely to open next. Or when you get a reminder of an appointment that you never got around to putting into your calendar. Or when a map location pops up for the hotel you've reserved, before you type it in. Or when the phone points you to where you parked your car, even though you never asked it to. These are all techniques either made possible or greatly enhanced by Apple's adoption of deep learning and neural nets.

Apple is seeking data scientists with a minimum of 3 years experience with machine learning, with a focus on deep learning, natural language processing, image applications, recommenders, physical sensors, and signal processing.

Turi was designed to help developers build apps with artificial intelligence capabilities that automatically scale. It developed the Turi Machine Learning Platform, GraphLab Create, and Turi Predictive Services, used for functions like recommendations, fraud detection, sentiment analysis, and more.

Apple has expanded its presence in Seattle, so it is likely the new hires will accompany existing Turi employees that have remained in the area.

Article Link: Apple Hiring for New Machine Learning Division Following Turi Acquisition

 

[infodudeDOTnet]

This shows a great sign of improvements at Apple. Well done!

 

[Col4bin]

Cool. Maybe one day I can actually "date" Siri!

Did anyone see this movie? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/

 

[ike1707]

I'll continue quietly hoping that the Dragon is merely sleeping, and that this lull in the last few years is leading to big news and new and awesome things.

 

[busyscott]

Well, that job description is...specific.

 

[Schwyz]

All these hires... how about for a new CEO?

 

[Mactendo]

Still Siri feels not too smart... and all these app recommendations and reminders don't require special neural networks, it's a basic thing.
The return is too small for all these 3rd party purchases, promises and smart words like "neural nets" and "deep learning".

 

[shk718]

There is so much information on our phones that can be used for AI - I really fail to see why people say it can only be done well in the cloud. Apple has proven that its chips are fast enough with the facial recognition being done in the iPhone.

 

[SteveJobs2.0]

Siri + Turi = Suri

Apple's grand plan to appeal to India?

 

[hagar]

Nice, now make it so that if I ask Siri for directions, she is not so stupid to suggest a store at the other side of the planet.

 

[Return Zero]

Sometimes I feel like people need to step back and get some perspective... Making Siri replicate a real personal assistant is a hard enough task, but some of the expectations floating around are quite unrealistic! It's like some people's dating checklists.

"Siri needs a genuinely likeable personality, many impressive abilities, microsecond responsiveness, a great sense of humor, perfect situational awareness, and unbounded knowledge! Oh and she needs to be great in bed of course."

I know Siri might be lagging behind some other services, but honestly I am not really impressed by any of them so far. Exactly none of them are real-world game changers to the average user IMO (I'm sure disabled people et al. would disagree).

 

[ErikGrim]

Nicely timed with a certain Levy article outlining exactly the people Apple are looking for.

“We hire people who are very smart in fundamental domains of mathematics, statistics, programming languages, cryptography,” says Federighi. “It turns out a lot of these kinds of core talents translate beautifully to machine learning. Though today we certainly hire many machine learning people, we also look for people with the right core aptitudes and talents.”

“Our practices tend to reinforce a natural selection bias — those who are interested in working as a team to deliver a great product versus those whose primary motivation is publishing,” says Federighi. If while improving an Apple product scientists happen to make breakthroughs in the field, that’s great. “But we are driven by a vision of the end result,” says Cue.

 

[michelb76]

There were about 118 machine learning positions open at Apple, and that was well before they bought Turi/started the team in Seattle.

 

[Keane16]

AI and machine Learning is so exciting - and scary at the same time.

One of the reasons I'm glad we have someone like Tim Cook in charge is that he values privacy. That will be more and more important to me going forward as AI and Machine learning continue to grow and become key parts of our computing devices and accessories.

For anyone hasn't read it, the link below is a great insight into how AI and Machine Learning are already being used within Apple:

https://backchannel.com/an-exclusiv...earning-work-at-apple-8dbfb131932b#.lbs6wwvi7

 

[SandboxGeneral]

The whole area is an interesting one that they and other companies are delving into more seriously and it will be fascinating to see how far they can go with it and make some useful and practical applications out of it all.

 

[Glassed Silver]

Cool. Maybe one day I can actually "date" Siri!

Did anyone see this movie? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/

I knew which movie you talked about before I even opened the link. heh

And yeah, I did.

Glassed Silver:ios