Reuters reports that Apple has confirmed its acquisition of Israeli start up Q.ai. The secretive company specializes in unique application of AI and Machine Learning to solve audio problems.
The website for Q.ai is sparse, with the tagline “In a world full of noise, we craft a new kind of quiet” and little else. The Q.ai LinkedIn page has a bit more information: “In an age where human communication is everything, we found a way to take it to the next level, enabling super high bandwidth, unprecedented privacy, accessibility, multilingualism, and much more. Biology can only take us so far. Q will do the rest.”
The Reuters article points out that Q.ai filed a patent last year to read facial skin micromovements to “detect words mouthed or spoken, identify a person and assess their emotions, heart rate, respiration rate and other indicators.” In other words, Q.ai is developing technology that can read lips, emotional state, and more.
The company’s CEO, Aviad Maizels, founded PrimeSense and sold it to Apple back in 2013. The technology from that company formed the foundations for Face ID and the TrueDepth sensor array.
The company has around 100 employees, who will join Apple. Johny Srouji, Apple’s VP of Hardware Technologies, said that Q.ai “is a remarkable company that is pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging and machine learning. We’re thrilled to acquire the company, with Aviad at the helm, and are even more excited for what’s to come.”
It has been reported that Q.ai is valued at around $2B, which would make it the second-largest acquisition Apple has ever undertaken, behind Beats Electronics in 2014 (around $3B) and Intel’s cellular modem business in 2016 (around $1B).
