Twitter acquires machine-learning startup Whetlab

In an effort to accelerate its "machine learning," Twitter announced Wednesday that it acquired Whetlab, a Cambridge-based start-up with a focus on artificial intelligence. Details on the acquisition were not immediately available, but Whetlab said on its website that Twitter will now have access to the start-up's technology and small team as part of the deal. Whetlab is a start-up that develops artificial intelligence technologies, which can be used for things such as object recognition, speech processing and computational biology, according to the company's website. With its innovative technology, Whetlab said, it aims to make "machine learning better and faster for companies, automatically." "Rather than having to hire doctorate-wielding machine learning experts to architect and tune your system, our patent-pending technology helps your engineers -- your team that already understands your data and your needs -- get the latest and greatest deep learning techniques going in days rather than months of years," Whetlab said on its website.