Apple Expands Its Machine Learning Hub in Downtown Seattle

[MacRumors]

Apple has expanded its office space at Two Union Square, a 56-story office tower in Downtown Seattle, according to GeekWire.

The report claims Apple will soon occupy five floors inside the skyscraper, up from a floor-and-a-half of space it originally leased, based on permits filed with the city and the publication's own visits to the building.

The expansion gives Apple more than 70,000 square feet of space, enough for potentially close to 500 people, the report adds.

Last year, Apple confirmed that its Seattle engineering hub is focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning, technologies that power the likes of Siri and advanced facial recognition on the iPhone X.

Apple's jobs website lists 19 open positions in its Seattle office in a variety of fields, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, smart home automation, cloud computing, and natural language processing.

Apple's senior director of artificial intelligence and machine learning Carlos Guestrin back in February 2017:

We're trying to find the best people who are excited about AI and machine learning -- excited about research and thinking long term but also bringing those ideas into products that impact and delight our customers. The bar is high, but we're going to be hiring as quickly as we can find people that meet our high bar, which is exciting.

Seattle has become a hotbed for technology companies because of its talent pool and lower cost of living compared with the San Francisco area, with Amazon, Facebook, and Google among the tech giants with offices in the region.

Last year, Apple became a member of the Partnership on AI, a non-profit organization established "to study and formulate best practices, to advance the public's understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society."

Apple recently hired John Giannandrea, the former head of Google's search and artificial intelligence division. Apple's Machine Learning Journal documents the company's efforts in the artificial intelligence area.

Article Link: Apple Expands Its Machine Learning Hub in Downtown Seattle

 

[Andres Cantu]

Apple finally seemed to understand that Siri needs to get smarter with all these recent news we’ve been reading.

 

[Bswails]

Apple finally seemed to understand that Siri needs to get smarter with all these recent news we’ve been reading.

Hopefully they put action behind the words!

 

[NinjaHERO]

Get Siri to the JARVIS level and I'll be happy. Well at least temporarily happy. I'm sure I'll find another reason to complain shortly after that. ;-)

 

[kemal]

I'll say it again. The 2020 Mac Pro will be POWER 10. Or 11.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Please, please let WWDC focus on some huge Siri improvements. Thats all I ask. Oh, and a dark mode

 

[Markoth]

I'll say it again. The 2020 Mac Pro will be POWER 10. Or 11.

Why would they go back to the Power architecture? Isn't ARM more likely?

 

[Kabeyun]

Good stuff. We keep complaining, rightfully, that Siri is stupid. This is how Apple changes that.

 

[Rocketman]

The movie Terminator moves from fiction to reality.

 

[pika2000]

Time to poach some Microsoft people?

 

[Chrjy]

with the San Francisco area, with Amazon, Facebook, and Google among the tech giants with offices in the region.

Is there another largish tech company you're missing from that list at all?

 

[Rogifan]

Has it been confirmed that Apple’s AI poach from Google will have responsibility for Siri? I hope so but didn’t see it confirmed anywhere.

 

[Bacillus]

Please, please let WWDC focus on some huge Siri improvements. Thats all I ask. Oh, and a dark mode

Has it been confirmed that Apple’s AI poach from Google will have responsibility for Siri? I hope so but didn’t see it confirmed anywhere.

The problem with Siri is its architecture. Apple didn’t buy the modularity / scalability that the original developers had in mind. And those devs, after several years, are now with the competition.
Now that translates into a hu-ugh problem with functional improvement.
This is something that can’t be solved with 500 people in a skyscraper.
That must be PR fluff to ease the financial markets

 

[citysnaps]

The problem with Siri is its architecture. Apple didn’t buy the modularity / scalability that the original developers had in mind. And those devs, after several years, are now with the competition.
Now that translates into a hu-ugh problem with functional improvement.
This is something that can’t be solved with 500 people in a skyscraper.
That must be PR fluff to ease the financial markets

And Apple incurring and paying an extra $200+ million of loaded labor for that fluff and fake optics would go unnoticed, and make sense?

 

[avanpelt]

For a second, I thought they bought the entire building. They could fit plenty of ex-Google engineers in there.

 

[budselectjr]

“Machine learning” = Skip Logic

 

[ItWasNotMe]

Could be trouble once the machine learns how long its been since it was last updated

 

[A MacBook lover]

Seattle, lower cost of living? Please.

 

[ksnell]

Isn't the biggest cause of Apple's lag with Siri here due to their stance on privacy? No complaints from me if it does take them longer to "crack" the virtual personal assistant, as long as they aren't doing things like always listening to my conversations/pulling them back to their servers to analyze and help their service.

Unfortunately the competing interest with accuracy seems to be privacy, and as Apple works to do everything on device for the sake of privacy, they have a different issue at hand than the other companies.

 

[lobbyist]

Rumor has it the half floor had a portal into John Malkovich's head.

The report claims Apple will soon occupy five floors inside the skyscraper, up from a floor-and-a-half of space it originally leased, based on permits filed with the city and the publication's own visits to the building.

 

[AutisticGuy]

I'm so glad to read that, several years from now, Siri will improve in performance. Google must be shaking in their boots!

 

[scuac]

Seattle, lower cost of living? Please.

“... compared with the San Francisco area.” it is. Granted, that is a very easy bar to beat, and so does practically everywhere else in the country.
[doublepost=1523977897][/doublepost]

Is there another largish tech company you're missing from that list at all?

I think they just searched for Seattle city limits. The one you refer to is technically in Redmond.

 

[Zwhaler]

The other day I asked Siri: "What is the divorce rate for couples married between 18 and 25". I KID YOU NOT... it told me the answer is 43. The screen showed: "CALCULATOR: 18+25=43".

In case you're wondering, I ended up checking Google and the answer is about 60%.

 

[Kabeyun]

Has it been confirmed that Apple’s AI poach from Google will have responsibility for Siri? I hope so but didn’t see it confirmed anywhere.

Natch. Giannandrea is in charge of Apple’s machine learning and artificial intelligence strategy. Siri is the front end of that.
[doublepost=1523978285][/doublepost]

The other day I asked Siri: "What is the divorce rate for couples who got married between 18 and 25". I KID YOU NOT... it told me the answer is 43. The screen showed: "CALCULATOR: 18+25=43".

In case you're wondering, I ended up checking Google and the answer is about 60%.

We feel your pain. Here’s a screenshot from my photo album, “Siri's Greatest Hits”:

 

[FrenchRoasted]

Time to poach some Microsoft people?

Please no, at least no Microsoft managers. Windows 10 shows they have no moral qualms about privacy/data mining for their own benefit.