In 2016, Seattle-based startup Turi was helping almost 100 customers create and manage software that uses machine learning, a powerful type of artificial intelligence. Its technology was so promising that Apple Inc. snapped it up for $200 million. The deal was a triumph for investors and founders, but one backer thought Turi -- and the broader tech industry -- might be better off if the startup had spurned Apple's advances. Matt McIlwain, managing director at Madrona Venture Group, said it's important that at least some emerging tech businesses remain independent, rather than falling into the arms of Apple, Amazon.com "It is economically beneficial to society to have more stand-alone, independent companies. We generally think that's better than just having these companies consolidated into larger ones," McIlwain said.

Apple has acquired Xnor.ai, a Seattle startup specializing in low-power, edge-based artificial intelligence tools, sources with knowledge of the deal told GeekWire. Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources said Apple paid an amount similar to what was paid for Turi, in the range of $200 million. Xnor.ai didn't immediately respond to our inquiries, while Apple emailed us its standard response on questions about acquisitions: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." When we visited Xnor.ai's office in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood this morning, a move was clearly in progress -- presumably to Apple's Seattle offices. The arrangement suggests that Xnor's AI-enabled image recognition tools could well become standard features in future iPhones and webcams.

Apple is setting up engineering operations in Seattle to develop artificial intelligence applications for its range of devices including the iPhone, MacBooks, Apple Watch and iPads among others. Geekwire reported Thursday the company has invested in the venture to realize its "AI ambitions" and has setup a $1 million endowed professorship in artificial intelligence and machine learning at the University of Washington in accordance with its acquisition of Australian start-up Turi in August last year. "We're trying to find the best people who are excited about AI and machine learning -- excited about research and thinking long term but also bringing those ideas into products that impact and delight our customers," Carlos Guestrin, director of machine learning at Apple told Geekwire on Thursday. He also added: "We work on the whole spectrum. It's not just about doing research, but it's about the technology transfer and how that gets embedded into experiences that customers love."

Just like it does every year, Apple is expected to launch its next major iOS update at its World Wide Developers Conference event, which will be held in San Jose in June. According to previous rumors, the device will have an edge-to-edge display, a front camera with depth measurement functionality and support wireless charging. This milestone could be another reason that Apple could put out a new update, bringing major changes to the existing version of the operating system. Artificial Intelligence enabled Siri: Artificial intelligence (AI) enabled voice assistants seem to be the new fad in the smartphone industry. While Google's Assistant and Amazon's Alexa have made their way not just to smartphones, but even to smart devices, HTC has come out with its own Sense Companion and Samsung is developing Bixby.

Apple plans to introduce a much smarter version of Siri this year, leveraging a bunch of machine learning technologies it recently acquired with Turi, Tuplejump, Perceptio, VocalIQ and other AI-focused acquisitions, Digitimes claims. The report seems to suggest Apple plans to introduce these features alongside introduction of a future iPhone, though it is not clear if this will be this year, or the next. However, this makes little sense given Siri is now available across all Apple's platforms – while the capabilities may differ (Siri behaves a little differently on a Mac, for example), the basic tech is similar. That's why I can't imagine new Siri features being introduced as an iPhone exclusive. The report also states other smartphone vendors, "are likely to introduce models featuring AI (artificial intelligence) applications as a means to ramp up market shares in 2017, according to industry sources."

About a year ago, a certain California firm quietly snapped up VocalIQ, a UK-based startup that used machine learning to build conversational virtual assistants. Subsequent reports noted that Apple kept most of the startup's employees to work out of their unmarked Cambridge, UK office on integrating VocalIQ technology into Siri. Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, Business Insider reports that Apple is now looking to increase the size of the Siri team in Cambridge. "In a bid to make Siri that bit more useful to iPhone, iPad and Mac owners, Apple intends to hire at least half a dozen software engineers in Cambridge in the coming months," reads the post. Apple's Cambridge office is currently home to a team of roughly 30 people working on voice recognition technology that would let Siri and users speak to each other in a more natural dialogue.

Apple recently purchased Turi, a Seattle-based machine learning company. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." The tech giant's standard response to questions about recent acquisitions is frustratingly static and uninformative. But the company's latest purchase, machine learning startup Turi, is at least its fourth acquisition in the artificial intelligence space over the last several months – suggesting that whatever its "purpose or plans," Apple is certainly looking to make its devices smarter. The tech giant purchased the Seattle-based startup for around 200 million, according to GeekWire.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is reportedly on a buying spree for machine learning companies. It seeks to enhance its expertise in artificial intelligence and for this purpose, the tech giant acquired another machine learning company, Tuplejump, which is based in India. Tuplejump is also present in US and has an exceptional machine learning team. Along with acquiring its business, Apple has also reportedly attained its team which is now based in Seattle along with Turi. This move was followed by its previous purchases, where it acquired Perceptio at the end of FY15, as well as Turi few months back.

It was reported that the Apple company is about to acquire artificial intelligence startup Turi Inc., in a 200 million transaction. Artificial intelligence appears to be the next big step for the main technology company worldwide. Apple is trying not to be left behind by buying this Seattle-based machine learning startup. With the acquisition of Turi, Apple is aiming to tap into the Artificial Intelligence researcher's community which has suggested that the multinational tech company is too secretive about its AI advances. As well, Apple is planning to use Turi to improve its personal assistance program, Siri.

As it pulls the plug on iPhone jacks, Apple is making what appears to be a concerted move into machine learning as it seeks to upgrade its next operating system to improve its Siri virtual assistant along with emerging machine learning applications expected to find their way into other Apple devices. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) watchers point to last month's acquisition of machine learning startup Turi for about 200 million as another sign that the consumer electronics giants is laying the groundwork for a machine learning push. The Seattle-based startup's machine learning platform focuses on rapid development of real-time services and applications based on embedded machine learning models. Turi is seen as a natural fit for Apple's machine learning push since its application toolkits based on the Python programming language are designed to simplify development of machine learning models that can be embedded into applications and quickly scaled.