Apple uses Turi acquisition resources to expand machine learning efforts

There’s a reason Apple buys companies from time to time.

Following its acquisition of machine learning platform Turi earlier this month, Apple is now growing the team that will serve as the company’s new machine learning division focusing on integrating the tech into new and existing products.

Apple confirmed tat the company had acquired Turi earlier in August, stating that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time,” albeit without providing details.

Apple has apparently started expanding the team acquired by the acquisition and is bringing in new application developers as well as data scientists into Turi’s Seattle location, where the company is based.

The new machine learning division will work alongside Apple’s product teams to prototype new features and improvements that could be integrated into Apple’s existing apps and future products. Prior to Apple’s acquisition, the Turi platform offered a number of use cases for software developers to implement machine learning tech including recommendation engines, fraud detection, sentiment and customer/user analysis, and more. Apple has newly posted job listings on its website for similar positions on the Turi machine learning team.

Apple had hinted as to an expansion in the Seattle area, citing that it was interested in up to 354,000 square feet of office space that could accommodate up to 2,300 employees. That would significantly increase the office space the company currently has in the area.

Apple is already using machine learning in many of its products that could benefit from the new team. An interview with executives following the Turi acquisition offered some insights into the company’s recent work with machine learning in Siri, iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, as well as the upcoming iOS 10 release arriving this fall.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via 9to5Mac