Let’s be honest: 2024 is the year of AI. If your phone doesn’t have his AI capabilities, you might as well live next door to the Flintstones. That’s obviously an exaggeration, but you know WWDC 2024 will be scrutinized like never before. Apple announces the biggest update in iOS history. Bloomberg’s Mark Garman recently wrote that Apple plans to use AI to make it easier for users to complete everyday tasks and make much-needed improvements to Siri.
To help the iPhone’s AI features run faster and more securely, Apple wants them to run on the device rather than through the cloud, where it has access to more powerful cloud-based servers. . There’s a trade-off here. Complex AI algorithms may require more processing power than iPhone can provide on-device. But the benefit of using AI on a device, as already mentioned, is that it allows users to perform tasks faster and more safely.
Apple hasn’t exactly said that “iPhone AI will be on-device.” However, French magazine Challenges (via 9to5Mac) reports that Apple has acquired Datakalab, a French AI startup that specializes in AI compression and computer vision technology. The company claims to be “an expert in low-power, runtime-efficient, deep learning algorithms” that run on its devices. Four years ago, the company worked with the French government to add AI tools to Paris’ transit system to check whether people were wearing masks. In the past, we have also collaborated with Disney.
Apple has reportedly acquired French AI company Datakalab for an undisclosed amount.
The deal, which is believed to have closed in December, is typical of a relatively small investment to acquire a little-known company that will offer some kind of product or service for the iPhone within a year or two. This is a typical Apple deal. . A good example of such an acquisition is his $356 million purchase of biometrics company AuthenTec in 2012. The following year, Apple introduced the Touch ID biometric fingerprint scanner in the iPhone 5s.
Before being removed, the Datakalab website said: “Datakalab is a French technology company that develops computer image analysis algorithms to measure flows in public spaces. Images are instantly converted into anonymized statistical data that is processed locally in 100 milliseconds. Datakalab does not store any images or data.” Datakalab products are built according to the principles of “Privacy by Design.” ”Before partnering with Apple, the company had 10 to 20 employees.
