Apple has acquired AI start-up Voysis and could complete a $100m deal to purchase live events enterprise NextVR as it looks to improve Siri and boost its augmented reality (AR) capabilities.
On Friday, Apple revealed a deal for Voysis, an Irish company that has built a digital platform that allows voice assistants to better interpret natural language.
Apple could use the tech to deliver improvements to its own AI assistant Siri at a time when voice-related features and search are becoming much more widely used by smartphone owners.
There were no financial details disclosed, though records show that Voysis did post a loss of €6.7m during the last financial year.
In a statement, Apple said: “(Apple) buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
Voysis, which was founded eight years ago, has developed a system based on Wavenets, deep neural networks capable of generating realistic, human-like voices.
Voysis says that the AI platforms can deliver “more intuitive, efficient and personalised experiences”, which is something that Apple will be hoping to deploy across its operating systems.
The acquisition comes just days after Apple completed a deal to buy the weather app Dark Sky.
Reports over the weekend claim that further acquisitions are likely, with California-based NextVR next on the list.
The live events VR company has already produced video content for a host of big events, including Wimbledon and the NBA.
Consumers can access the videos by using VR headsets at home.
NextVR may be open to acquisition as a funding round last year failed to gain traction and it had to let go of around 40% of its workforce.
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook spoke of the importance of AR and VR earlier this year, so similar deals linked to the cutting-edge tech could be in the offing.
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