Bit more on tha Xnor takeover by Apple in the extract belowFull...

Bit more on tha Xnor takeover by Apple in the extract below

Full article at Hey Siri. Why did Apple pay $200m for an AI start-up? (may require sub)

Apple has paid almost $200m for an AI start up that specialises in bringing intelligence to “smart” devices, in one of the largest in a spate of acquisitions by the iPhone maker to make up for lost ground in a key technology. The company’s offer for Seattle-based Xnor beat out approaches from other big groups including Microsoft, Amazon and Intel, according to two people familiar with the purchase.

The two-year-old start-up specialises in running complex machine learning models on so-called edge devices — the name given to the wide range of gadgets, from smartphones to smart home devices and cars, that operate beyond the reach of the cloud data centres that currently handle most artificial intelligence processing. Running machine learning on-device, rather than in the cloud, has become one of the most important technology frontiers in the spread of AI. For Apple, better on-device AI would allow the company’s customers to keep full control of their personal data, said one person familiar with Xnor’s technology. That has become an important part of the company’s marketing pitch as it tries to distinguish itself from Google and Facebook.