Apple Acquires Machine Learning and AI Startup Turi

[Souponastick270]

So I'm assuming that Apple will take control of any patents related to AI that this company has, so even if Apple doesn't have a product on the market implementing the AI patents they gain from this purchase but they will sue anybody who does infringe on them, Apple wouldn't be the patent troll, amirite ??

 

[Aston441]

Artificial Intelligence... Wonder if this will make its way to help Siri become smarter. I just want to be able to order a pizza with her.

Just get an Echo. Pizza will be on its way.

 

[citysnaps]

So I'm assuming that Apple will take control of any patents related to AI that this company has, so even if Apple doesn't have a product on the market implementing the AI patents they gain from this purchase but they will sue anybody who does infringe on them, Apple wouldn't be the patent troll, amirite ??

That's correct.

 

[budselectjr]

skip logic

 

[manhattanboy]

No "where's the new MBP's Apple?!?" posts? Gosh people are slipping.

This purchase actually makes sense. Apparently the folks at Apple were not intelligent enough to realize that they should update their computers more frequently than every several years. So hopefully now with Artificial Intelligence on board they will realize that keeping up with competing products via frequent updates may actually be advantageous resulting in more sales.

 

[Kognito]

Great, just got a 1 year educational licence for Turi's Graphlab create to study ML. What are the chances that Graphlab will be swallowed up into the Apple machine before that year is up and never see daylight again?

 

[Crzyrio]

Would be very cool if apple added some machine learning api's for developers to use

 

[Souponastick270]

That's correct.

Sorry I missed '/s' from my first post. How does one company buying out another and it's patents make them a patent troll but when Apple does it then it's all fine and dandy as a previous article on MacRumors seems to make out.

 

[keysofanxiety]

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

That was one of the best reads I've encountered on the Internet. Thank you.

 

[djlythium]

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

Um, is there a TL;DR version?

 

[wikiverse]

Hopefully Apple will allow SIRI to learn from users like Microsoft did with Tay.

That was the funniest 24 hours on Twitter, without exception.

 

[Jakexb]

This could just as much about the acqui-hiring of an established machine learning team than it is about the technology. To have a team that has put so much time into figuring out machine learning as a service is a smart way of plugging into Apple as a company, rather than trying to build up expertise engineer by engineer across multiple teams.

 

[jerryk]

Great, just got a 1 year educational licence for Turi's Graphlab create to study ML. What are the chances that Graphlab will be swallowed up into the Apple machine before that year is up and never see daylight again?

Graphlab Create is open sources. So I doubt it will disappear completely. But Carlos and company have not issued any statement on the package's future.
[doublepost=1470450641][/doublepost]

Would be very cool if apple added some machine learning api's for developers to use

What do you mean? I am sitting here writing tons of machine learning based code on my Mac.

 

[Koalazub]

Well in which case, I hope you ordered the "I'm sorry, I can't take any requests right now" topping.

Viv.

 

[sw1tcher]

I can't andre it anymore, macrumors really is a place for apple haters. There are better alternatives out there

Bye. Take care.

 

[firewood]

Would be very cool if apple added some machine learning api's for developers to use

The iOS 10 Accelerate framework adds some accelerated neural net evaluation functions.

 

[nextuser]

Um, is there a TL;DR version?

Basically he's saying that human progress is exponential and always gets better. And that AI will cause human progress to shoot up almost in a vertical line if you're drawing it as a graph. He says that if you take a person from 1750 and show him the technology we have today, basically his head would explode (figuratively)

I think he's completely wrong though. If you take a person at the height of the Roman Empire and transport them into the future in the Dark Ages, they would be pretty horrified.

Everybody has their own definition of what AI is. Trying to create a humanoid robot that acts like a human I think is completely pointless.

I hope that the acquisition of Turi will finally allow Apple to improve auto-correct.

 

[Piggie]

Apple is getting so big and buying so many companies that as a name it doesn't really mean anything anymore. Apple is the human race. They should just change their name to "Human" and get it over with.

My worry is, they really do seem to be losing focus and having too many OK things than a few really AMAZING things.

Most people can look at a selection of their product line and see neglect, or aspects of design that are not as good as they could/should be.

Are the making money, sure. Is that all there is in life?
Did Steve Jobs die with a smile because he make a lot of money? No......

I know I'm not alone in thinking Apple are in great danger of just spreading themselves too thinly, whilst other more dynamic companies, change, adapt and bring out more cutting edge products faster, and themselves growing in size, whilst Apple wallows getting fatter and fatter.

Apple does not feel like the lean/clean dynamic company it once was.

 

[pat500000]

My worry is, they really do seem to be losing focus and having too many OK things than a few really AMAZING things.

Most people can look at a selection of their product line and see neglect, or aspects of design that are not as good as they could/should be.

Are the making money, sure. Is that all there is in life?
Did Steve Jobs die with a smile because he make a lot of money? No......

I know I'm not alone in thinking Apple are in great danger of just spreading themselves too thinly, whilst other more dynamic companies, change, adapt and bring out more cutting edge products faster, and themselves growing in size, whilst Apple wallows getting fatter and fatter.

Apple does not feel like the lean/clean dynamic company it once was.

Apple is already anorexic. Tim is about making money...serving investors...and boards.
The truth is...people need apple...and apple don't people because we have this apple dependency....depending fully on apple to serve their needs. I think some people might have separate anxiety issues when it comes to tech.
I'm saying some...because I don't think it's entirely true if everybody has this issue.

 

[BruceEBonus]

''Learning visualizations specific to the application. There is no faster way to build performant models''

Learning visualisations. Performant models

Pretentious? Moi?

Hands up who still remembers plain English.

Always be wary of those who rely on unnecessarily flowery prose to hide their shortcomings.

Performant models. Ha!

I'm off for a lie down, Jeeves. Wake me when supper is ready will you!

Learning visualisations? Really? Poppycock!

 

[wschutz]

So I'm assuming that Apple will take control of any patents related to AI that this company has, so even if Apple doesn't have a product on the market implementing the AI patents they gain from this purchase but they will sue anybody who does infringe on them, Apple wouldn't be the patent troll, amirite ??

I really doubt there are many reasonable patents on this. Turi is just the renamed company Dato which in turn is also the renamed GraphLab company. This company is a spin-off from some universities and researchers about the GraphLab tool.
There are quite some papers on GraphLab as well as it was open sourced.

I also doubt Apple is interested in implementing any AI patents or knowledge from this company. It is more... either Apple buys it or someone else will (the hype around the GraphLab tool, which I have followed since its inception, has been pushed quite a lot with plenty of workshops and conferences...). Apple can use GraphLab without buying the company, that was possible before (because at least the former versions are open source), and nowadays (as it could license it).

I wonder how all these innovations (paid with public funding) which are later privatized (clearly the roadmap of the now Turi was to give a business framework to the GraphLab engine) are possible.
Will the former universities where this started cash in any money of this?

Researchers, and users, are going to lose a lot on this... GraphLab has been a great tool (with its bugs and little perks which still makes it a work in progress) to do ML with little resources. Now with Apple acquiring it I doubt it will remain as it is, but hope is what we have, and in the worst case... this is the chance to actually fork it and make it a proper open source project backed by some non-profit organization which guarantees its development rather than building on it to... sell the company that stem from it.

 

[SgtPepper12]

Would be very cool if apple added some machine learning api's for developers to use

The thing is, machine learning is not exactly secret wisdom and it is also not really hard to implement. Some of the most frequently used algorithms are actually rather simple to implement and easily explained. There are tons of frameworks for that available freely (for example Google's tensorflow) which are also extremely easy to use. So really, they haven't bought tori for the GraphLab package, they bought it for the guys working there.

 

[Piggie]

Apple is already anorexic. Tim is about making money...serving investors...and boards.
The truth is...people need apple...and apple don't people because we have this apple dependency....depending fully on apple to serve their needs. I think some people might have separate anxiety issues when it comes to tech.
I'm saying some...because I don't think it's entirely true if everybody has this issue.

Yes, you are right.
They have, with skill, and some luck, everyone needs luck, managed to build up with slick and controlled marketing an image of very high end quality without it actually existing, and pushing this viewpoint of their products being special, and luxury, whilst at the same time making them gigantically mass market.

With almost anything else in life, mass market instantly kills perceived quality.
Apple have managed to create a feeling that if you own their product you have something others don't, or can afford things others can't, whilst this being the total opposite.

Would be like Rolls Royce, trying to tell you, your car is special, when most of the kids in school also have a Rolls Royce, it would just not work. Yet Apple have managed to place this viewpoint in people's minds.

If you watch some YouTube videos on laptop repairs and internal design, you will see the very skilled technicians often remark about how cheap and poor they are inside.
But to the customer that does not matter as it's the nice outside you see and feel, and the outward design.
How shocking bad the design internally of the screen hinge is, is of no interest to them.

All I really wish is Apple would consider making just one line in it's ranges of products for the old school person who wants a really good spec computer, not interested in how many millimetres they can shave off the screen.

Unfortunately they seem to only aim at those who have money but also have minimal needs.
One only has to read these very forums and see people say "Well I do almost all my work in my iPad now. Not used my imac all week," to know what we're talking about here.

 

[needfx]

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

Turry meets Turi!!!

mind blown!

 

[McScooby]

Only way I care about making Siri smarter is to give it an offline mode, surely can't be that hard?