Apple Acquired Machine Learning Startup Inductiv for Siri Improvements

[MacRumors]

Apple recently purchased Ontario-based machine learning startup Inductiv for the purpose of improving Siri, reports Bloomberg.

Apple confirmed the purchase with one of its typical acquisition statements: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

Inductiv's engineering team joined Apple after the acquisition to work on Siri, machine learning, and data science at the company. Prior to the purchase, Inductiv created technology that used AI to automate identifying and correcting errors in data for machine learning purposes. From Bloomberg:

Having clean data is important for machine learning, a popular and powerful type of AI that helps software improve with less human invention.

The work falls under the category of data science, a key element of Apple's broader machine-learning strategy.

Apple's Siri chief John Giannandrea, who is also responsible for machine learning, has been upgrading the underlying technology that Siri is based on with acquisitions of companies like Inductiv.

Apple has purchased multiple AI and machine learning-related companies over the course of the last several years, such as Voysis, Xnor.ai, Turi, Perceptio, Tuplejump, and more.

Article Link: Apple Acquired Machine Learning Startup Inductiv for Siri Improvements

 

[JMO1]

i hope Siri starts to get better with all the acquisitions; we’ll be waiting

 

[GeoStructural]

Yeah they keep acquiring start-ups and Siri is still dumb in comparison with Alexa, Cortana and Google Assistant.

 

[Nicky G]

Wouldn't machine learning tend to be an element of a data science strategy? Anywho...

 

[44267547]

Apple acquired John Giannandrea from Google about two years ago, Which I’m sure these overall changes take quite some time, but I use Siri every single day for dictation and overall, there are definitely areas of improvement, and it falls behind in some aspects, but I Think there’s huge Potential for AI in the future with Siri becoming far more advanced, maybe that’s what’s taking so long to see these changes, because it’s being ‘Overhauled‘, and it’s not really an overnight process.

 

[now i see it]

It's doubtful anyone on earth really wants to work on fixing Siri. I'll bet the founders of this newly acquired company sold out for cash & bailed, leaving their employees to get sucked into the  vacuum.
Just a hunch. I have no facts to back it up

 

[eicca]

Given that autocorrect has gotten progressively WORSE over the years, I’m not holding my breath.

 

[Vado]

Hope we start to see some real Siri improvements in iOS 14.

 

[Howyalikdemapls]

Every once in a while Siri is able to respond to me with an actual useful answer and it’s totally shocking because at this point I only expect her to make a stupid joke, not understand me, or blatantly tell me she can’t do it. I’ve pretty much given up hope at this point.

 

[BF1M]

Yeah they keep acquiring start-ups and Siri is still dumb in comparison with Alexa, Cortana and Google Assistant.

If they were any good Google would have already acquired them.

 

[LFC2020]

Don't remember the last time I used Siri, or any other voice assistant for that matter lol.

Don't care about Siri, release my mini led MacBook Pro already lol. 😔💻

 

[konqerror]

It's doubtful anyone on earth really wants to work on fixing Siri. I'll bet the founders of this newly acquired company sold out for cash & bailed, leaving their employees to get sucked into the  vacuum.
Just a hunch. I have no facts to back it up

Apple isn't stupid. There's always cash or stock tied to them staying for a certain period. This is true for run-of-the-mill engineers or pretty much people in any industry, even something like hiring a teacher at a school.

 

[rgeneral]

It's doubtful anyone on earth really wants to work on fixing Siri. I'll bet the founders of this newly acquired company sold out for cash & bailed, leaving their employees to get sucked into the  vacuum.
Just a hunch. I have no facts to back it up

it is true. But imagine this. I fixed Siri on your resume. I think that will go a long way.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Thirdithy time will be the charm no doubt.
[automerge]1590622725[/automerge]

It's doubtful anyone on earth really wants to work on fixing Siri. I'll bet the founders of this newly acquired company sold out for cash & bailed, leaving their employees to get sucked into the  vacuum.
Just a hunch. I have no facts to back it up

Unless there is heavy duty IP to be acquired such purchases are to get the talent for a fixed period of time.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Just let me use my HomePod to initiate playback of shows on my apple TV. Siri on the iPhone and iPad can do it. That’s all I’m asking for really.

 

[Kabeyun]

Don't remember the last time I used Siri, or any other voice assistant for that matter lol.

I didn’t use Siri much at all either. Then I bought a few HomePods and I found I was using Siri much more. Then we converted our whole soho use to Lutron smart switches and we now use Siri all the time.

Having clean data is important for machine learning, a popular and powerful type of AI that helps software improve with less human invention.

Whoops. That’s supposed to be “with less human intervention.”

 

[ipedro]

I've been waiting to see when John Giannandrea's work would be revealed but having a deeper look, it's already been trickling through. There is no grand reveal.

The original Siri wasn't built to scale up to a full fledged conversational UI. It was a third party app meant to execute commands on a narrow pre-defined set of actions. They tried grafting new functions onto something that couldn't scale. This is why Siri fell so behind.

Giannandrea came on board and has been rebuilding the entire foundation of Siri while it continued to operate, like rebuilding the wings of an airplane while in flight and carrying passengers oblivious to that work.

The new foundation of Siri is seen in Siri Shortcuts. No longer do you require Sirikit with its very deliberate, yet restricted set of domains. i.e. Message apps, Payments, Workouts, Lists, Ride Booking, etc. Siri Shortcuts allows *any* app to interact with Siri. It's important to note that Siri Shortcuts isn't just an app that users can manually rebuild shortcuts with but an entire foundation of how Siri works now and apps can interact with through Machine Learning.

I'm excited with each new acquisition knowing that Apple is working on the problem. There's still a ways to go but we're no longer in the stuck in the mud phase. Siri is in real advances now, pushing ahead incrementally.

 

[macmyworld]

I just told this to Alexa and my Echo fell off the table laughing.

 

[CordovaLark]

How many acquisitions will it take? How many is this now, no improvements yet. I think even the theory behind Apple simply restarting/rebuilding Siri from the ground up is now just wishful thinking.

 

[incoherent_1]

Every once in a while Siri is able to respond to me with an actual useful answer and it’s totally shocking because at this point I only expect her to make a stupid joke, not understand me, or blatantly tell me she can’t do it. I’ve pretty much given up hope at this point.

Exactly. I use Siri for exactly two things: setting timers and turning on/off my AC. It’s about 70% reliable at each of those things, which makes it only barely useful.

For everything else? It’s completely broken.

 

[Meñito]

Siri is stuck in a very deep swamp, it has not advanced in it learning ability in years, this is mainly seen in languages other than English, which is very frustrating when asked to answer questions or perform some tasks that are "out of the ordinary".

 

[falainber]

How many acquisitions will it take? How many is this now, no improvements yet. I think even the theory behind Apple simply restarting/rebuilding Siri from the ground up is now just wishful thinking.

Well, eventually they will buy enough people to use them instead of AI. Maybe then Siri will improve.

 

[mxrider88]

Hope we start to see some real Siri improvements in iOS 14.

I’ve been saying for a while now:

-Hope we start to see some real Siri improvements in iOS 9

-Hope we start to see some real Siri improvements in iOS 10

-Hope we start to see some real Siri improvements in iOS 11

-Hope we start to see some real Siri improvements in iOS 12

-Hope we start to see some real Siri improvements in iOS 13


I’ve lost faith.. everything software related is falling apart more and more every year. They need to change the whole software team in there. The best talents are long gone, Forstall and Serlet just to mention two of them and let Steve rest for once..

 

[insomniac86]

I feel that with ALL the AI companies purchased by Apple in the past 2-3 years, we haven't seen ANY of their tech implemented. If it has, then wow, what a waste of coin!

Something I've also noticed, Siri appears to have lost a lot of functionality that she used to have which was marketed in the Apple advertisements and keynotes.

I asked Siri a bunch of questions from their iPhone 4 Siri video and she could no longer answer a few of them.
I feel she has gotten worse in Australia as the years have gone by.

 

[malkovich87]

it’ll probably take a long time for any improvements to to show up, but let’s hope things happen sooner rather than later