Apple purchases VocalIQ, may use APIs to boost Siri, rumored car project

Add this to the other cool things Apple has bought over the years and may or may not do something with.

Apple has apparently purchased VocalIQ, a startup located in the UK that has “developed a self-learning dialogue API built on 10 years of natural language research, belief tracking, decision making, and message generation.”

Albeit no one has said how Apple plans to use VocalIQ’s assets, it’s thought that VocalIQ’s API can help improve Siri. It’s also thought that Apple could use the technology for its upcoming car project, as VocalIQ specialized in in-car applications among other things, as the company has collaborated with General Motors in the past. .

In a blog earlier this year, VocalIQ described how a “conversational voice-dialog system” in a car’s navigation system could prevent drivers from becoming distracted by looking at screens. Its “self- learning” technology allows “real conversation between human and the internet of things”, VocalIQ wrote.

VocalIQ has criticized Siri in a past blog post, calling the virtual assistant a “toy” unable to understand context. The difference between VocalIQ’s system and traditional speech-recognition services like Siri and Cortana is its ability to learn.

Apple confirmed its purchase of VocalIQ with its usual statement: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via MacRumors and the Financial Times