Apple buys DarwinAI and deepens its plans with artificial intelligence

All rumors indicate that Manzana By 2024, it has prepared big announcements related to artificial intelligence. For several months now, there has been talk, for example, that iOS 18 will be a turning point for the company. The software will include a smarter version of Siri and new features based on generative artificial intelligence. And as part of its plan to deepen its strategy with this technology, it is now known that the company has acquired the startup. DarwinII.

According to Mark Gurman, BloombergDarwinAI is a Canadian company that has gained relevance in the development of artificial intelligence tools used in manufacturing processes. For example, for visual inspection of elements at the stage of their production. However, one of its most innovative assets is that it specializes in adapt neural networks to make them smaller and faster.

According to the aforementioned journalist, the acquisition of DarwinAI by Apple happened earlier this year. After the agreement was concluded, the startup employees joined the artificial intelligence division of the apple company. The same thing happened to Alexander Wang, the researcher who helped found the company.

It is currently unknown what role the acquired company – or at least its former employees – will play in Apple’s strategy. It is assumed that the ability to create smaller systems can help run artificial intelligence models from iPhone or Mac.

However, Tim Cook’s people remain silent on the matter. Most likely, any news related to the introduction of its technology will be announced during WWDC 2024. The traditional event for developers does not yet have a confirmed date, but it will probably take place in June.

DarwinAI, Apple’s new acquisition

McRumors indicates that DarwinAI’s website and social media profiles were taken down following the Apple purchase. Despite the fact that the Canadian company was a startup unknown to ordinary people, it worked with corporations like Lockheed Martin and Intel.

In fact in 2020 Sheldon Fernandez, the company’s then-CEO, explained what they did in an article published by Intel. There, he noted that DarwinAI is focused on making AI-based applications more efficient and not run like a black box.

“We use other forms of artificial intelligence to fundamentally research and understand the neural network. We develop a very deep understanding of it, and then use AI a second time to create a new family of neural networks that is just as good as the original, but much better.” less, and that can be explained,” Fernandez told the Santa Clara Chipera newspaper at the time.

Aside from the lack of certainty about what role DarwinAI’s employees will play, having this technology and this knowledge could be critical to Apple’s plans. The Cupertino firm has been somewhat sidelined in the conversation around generative artificial intelligence, a scenario in which OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic are getting most of the attention today.

Apple didn’t hesitate to remember that it has been investing in artificial intelligence for many years, and among the many rumors about future products and services, the creation of its own ChatGPT-style chatbot is mentioned. Although, without a doubt, the most noticeable change in his strategy came with the recent cancellation Apple Car redirect its resources to the AI ​​division.