Apple has confirmed its purchase of Israeli startup Q.ai, a company working on technology to help devices like iPhones better understand the spoken word in challenging conditions.
Reuters reports that Q.ai's team will join Apple, including its CEO Aviad Maizels. This is the second company Maizels has sold to Apple, following a 2013 sale of PrimeSense.
While Apple hasn't confirmed how much it paid for Q.ai or why it chose to buy it, its focus on machine learning was clearly a key factor. Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies, said that Q.ai "is a remarkable company that is pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging and machine learning" in a statement.
Q.ai's technology is aimed squarely at helping devices better understand what users are saying, even when the environment isn't ideal. Its technology can also be used to help software, like Siri, parse speech even at low volumes, like when whispered.
This comes as Apple is racing to improve Siri's capabilities in the face of stiff competition. Google, OpenAI, and others already offer voice-based communication with their respective AI chatbots.
While Siri has offered iPhone owners a way to talk to their devices for years, it's notoriously picky. Louder environments or muffled speech regularly confound the digital assistant, something Apple will surely hope Q.ai can help with.
Apple is working to make Siri more personal and conversational, with a relaunch expected within months. This buyout of Q.ai may come too late to have an immediate impact, but Siri could well benefit from the company's technology in the future.
