Apple’s biggest acquisition in history remains its $3 billion acquisition of Beats in 2014, but now it’s making its second-biggest acquisition: Q.ai, a four-year-old AI audio startup. Apple has not disclosed the terms, but financial times Apple is reportedly spending $2 billion on the company. He also mentioned Q.ai’s patent for optical sensor technology that can be integrated into headphones and glasses to recognize “tiny movements of facial skin” and enable nonverbal conversations with AI assistants.
Q.ai’s founders will join Apple, including CEO Aviad Maizels, who founded PrimeSense. Apple acquired the company in 2013 and repurposed the Xbox Kinect technology to power the iPhone’s FaceID setup. Now, the whisper-understanding technology could connect to Siri and other Apple Intelligence features upgraded with generative AI and work with future AirPods, Vision Pro, iPhone, or Mac devices.
In a statement provided to ReutersApple hardware executive Johnny Sluge described Q.ai as “a remarkable company that is pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging and machine learning.” Google Ventures is backing the startup, and managing partner Tom Hulme wrote in a blog post how it could help us learn “what will happen when computers eventually ‘disappear’ into our daily lives.”
