Alexander Lewis 
Mar 15, 2024
Tech giant Apple has reportedly bought a Canadian artificial intelligence (AI) startup DarwinAI in a bid to capture bigger ground in the realm of AI.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, a Bloomberg report said the AI firm was bought earlier this yea; however, Apple did not make any official announcement for the acquisition.
While the AI startup is famed for building an AI tech which is capable of conducting visual assessments of components amid production, the report mentions that the iPhone maker sometimes acquires small-scale tech firms without publicising its plans associated with its projects.
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The reason behind Apple's acquisition of DawinAI is that it's a proficient developer of smaller, faster AI systems, which remains Apple's focus as it prefers to rely on devices running on AI rather than depending entirely on cloud-based solution.
Alexander Wong, an AI researcher at the University of Waterloo and a key figure in building DarwinAI, has joined Apple as a director in its AI group. Apple CEO Tim Cook has promised to “break new ground” in the AI sphere this year, as the company is expected to make a big announcement at the company’s worldwide developers conference in June.
The Cupertino-based tech giant has internally deployed AI into its operation, particularly the technology which helps in customer service requests, while eyeing its integration into Apple's software for auto-creating presentations and completing blocks of text.
Besides all that, what further validates Apple's plans for outshining in the AI market is the reported development of an updated version of its Xcode, a programming software which uses AI to simplify code writing for developers, and the recent pull of from the Apple Car project, AKA Project Titan.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple sees immense potential in DarwinAI, and looks to invest heavily on it with hopes to develop transformative advancements.
