Apple quietly purchased an artificial intelligence startup this yr, and we can see the first fruits of that purchase in this year’s major iPhone software release

The iPhone maker bought the company earlier this yr, and dozens of DarwinAI employees have joined Apple’s artificial intelligence division, in response to people accustomed to the matter who asked to not be identified because the deal was unannounced.

DarwinAI has developed artificial intelligence technology to visually inspect components during the manufacturing process and serves clients across a spread of industries. However, one of its core technologies is the creation of artificial intelligence systems smaller and faster. This work could possibly be helpful for Apple, which is concentrated on running AI on devices moderately than entirely in the cloud.

As part of the deal, Alexander Wong, an artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Waterloo who helped construct the company, joined Apple as a director in its AI group.

In response to questions on the deal, Cupertino, California-based Apple said it “occasionally buys smaller technology companies” but wouldn’t discuss its plans.

Waterloo, Ontario-based DarwinAI picked up According to the Canadian startup community, Communitech has received over $15 million in 2022 investments from Honeywell Ventures and Inovia Capital, amongst others. According to Communitech, the startup has also worked with firms equivalent to Lockheed Martin Corp. and Intel Corp.

This stealth acquisition comes ahead of Apple’s big push into artificial intelligence this yr. The company is adding features to its iOS 18 software that depend on generative artificial intelligence, the technology behind ChatGPT, and other breakthrough tools. Chief Executive Tim Cook he promissed that Apple will “introduce new capabilities” in artificial intelligence this yr, and the announcement is predicted as early as the global developer conference organized by the company in June.

Despite acquiring more AI firms than most rivals over the past decade, Apple lags behind in the generative AI market. It was halted by the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, and tech competitors like Google and Microsoft Corp. gained attention with latest features.

Read more: Apple is preparing an AI tool to compete with Microsoft’s Copilot GitHub

Internally, Apple has begun to include generative artificial intelligence into its operations, using the technology to handle customer requests. It also plans so as to add functions for automatic creation of presentations and completion of text blocks to its software. Apple is working on a new edition of its Xcode programming software that uses artificial intelligence to assist developers write code.