Apple buys machine learning startup Turi

Apple buys machine learning startup Turi ,

Amelia Krales

Apple has acquired the machine learning startup Turi, according to GeekWire. As usual with an Apple acquisition, it's picking up a small company whose products will likely make their way into the fabric of other Apple services. In this case, Turi offers tools that are meant to let developers easily scale machine learning applications.

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Apple's been putting a heavy focus on machine learning recently

While it's possible that Apple could make these available to third parties in the future, it may simply want the tools and the team behind Turi for itself. Apple has been talking up machine learning quite a bit lately — as has, you may have noticed, the entire tech industry — and this acquisition is likely part of the plan to make its apps and services much smarter. Every big tech company is racing in that direction, and Apple certainly wants to get out in the lead.

Turi was acquired for around $200 million, according to GeekWire. Apple confirmed the purchase in its usual detail-free statement. Apple has purchased other machine learning and AI startups in recent months as well, including VocalIQ, Emotient, and Perceptio.