Apple Buys Canadian Start-up DarwinAI, Attempts to Bring Killer Feature to Catch up With Microsoft, Google

Apple has reportedly acquired Canadian artificial intelligence (AI) startup DarwinAI, specializing in vision-based technology for improving manufacturing efficiency.

According to the company's LinkedIn accounts, although Apple and DarwinAI still have not disclosed their partnership, several startup team members joined Apple's machine learning teams in January.

Apple Buys DarwinAI

DarwinAI has secured over $15 million in funding from investors in multiple rounds, including Inovia Capital, Honeywell Ventures, Obvious Ventures, and BDC Capital's Deep Tech Venture Fund. On its website, BDC Capital affirms that it has received an exit from DarwinAI, while Obvious Venture has updated its portfolio to reflect the startup's acquisition.

At the time of writing, BDC Capital and Obvious Ventures had not responded to inquiries about the report, and Apple did not immediately respond to queries for comment.

Bloomberg mentioned in its report that apart from improving manufacturing efficiency, DarwinAI employs methods to create smaller and quicker AI models. This may be helpful for the generative AI features that Apple plans to include in iOS 18 later this year.

Compared to rivals like OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, Apple has been slower in releasing capabilities driven by AI. Tim Cook stated in February that such features would be released "later this year."

"We continue to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort, and we're excited to share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year," Cook said during a quarterly earnings call with analysts.

The chief executive of Apple approved funding for gen-AI initiatives last year. Apple has indicated in its job postings that it is investigating the integration of AI into several internal and external domains, including customer service, developer tools, and Siri.

Apple To Launch iPhone 16 in a Few Months

Apple has just launched the iPhone 15, but rumors about the iPhone 16 are already swirling. The series is anticipated to significantly outperform its predecessors in terms of upgrades and enhancements.

There are rumors that the device will have an entirely new design, a more powerful processor, improved camera capabilities, and a display.

The design of the iPhone 16 is anticipated to be significantly altered, as leaked concept models suggest a change from earlier versions.

According to reports, Apple plans to switch from a triangle to a vertical twin camera arrangement, potentially focused on spatial video recording for the Apple Vision Pro headset.

Furthermore, the iPhone X's vertical camera island may have inspired the design.

Renders also indicate improved camera functionality by changing design features like volume buttons and adding a new Capture button.

Pale yellow, pink, and black are speculated to be the color choices for the base model iPhone 16, while there may be other color options as well.

Tags

Apple, Microsoft, Google