Apple Acquires Machine Learning Startup Inductiv to Improve Siri

Apple has bought Inductiv Inc., a Canada-based machine learning startup, to work on Siri, machine learning and data science, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

siri waveform

The engineering team from Waterloo, Ontario-based Inductiv joined Apple in recent weeks to work on Siri, machine learning and data science. Apple confirmed the deal, saying it "buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

Besides staff LinkedIn profiles, the startup doesn't have an online presence, but according to the report, the outfit has developed technologoy that uses AI to identify and correct errors in data, which is important for machine learning and belongs to the field of data science.

Apple has previously hired knowledgeable people in the field, including dozens of engineers from consulting firm Silicon Valley Data Science in 2018. Apple is understood to be upgrading the technology that powers ‌Siri‌ and other AI-related products and services.

As Gurman notes, Apple has acquired several other AI and data companies in recent years, including, Tuplejump, Laserlike, Turi and Perceptio. Just this year the company bought Voysis to improve ‌Siri‌'s speech recognition, virtual reality startup NextVR, and popular weather app Dark Sky.

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Rumored to Use Same Rear Chassis as iPhone 16

Friday July 19, 2024 7:16 am PDT by
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Just Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Monday July 15, 2024 4:44 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
iphone 14 lineup

Cellebrite Unable to Unlock iPhones on iOS 17.4 or Later, Leak Reveals

Thursday July 18, 2024 4:18 am PDT by
Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite is unable to unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the capabilities of the company's mobile forensics tools and highlight the ongoing security improvements in Apple's latest devices. The leaked "Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix" obtained by 404 Media...
tinypod apple watch

TinyPod Turns Your Apple Watch Into an iPod

Wednesday July 17, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
If you have an old Apple Watch and you're not sure what to do with it, a new product called TinyPod might be the answer. Priced at $79, the TinyPod is a silicone case with a built-in scroll wheel that houses the Apple Watch chassis. When an Apple Watch is placed inside the TinyPod, the click wheel on the case is able to be used to scroll through the Apple Watch interface. The feature works...
bsod

Crowdstrike Says Global IT Outage Impacting Windows PCs, But Mac and Linux Hosts Not Affected

Friday July 19, 2024 3:12 am PDT by
A widespread system failure is currently affecting numerous Windows devices globally, causing critical boot failures across various industries, including banks, rail networks, airlines, retailers, broadcasters, healthcare, and many more sectors. The issue, manifesting as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), is preventing computers from starting up properly and forcing them into continuous recovery...
Apple Watch Series 9

2024 Apple Watch Lineup: Key Changes We're Expecting

Tuesday July 16, 2024 7:59 am PDT by
Apple is seemingly planning a rework of the Apple Watch lineup for 2024, according to a range of reports from over the past year. Here's everything we know so far. Apple is expected to continue to offer three different Apple Watch models in five casing sizes, but the various display sizes will allegedly grow by up to 12% and the casings will get taller. Based on all of the latest rumors,...

Top Rated Comments

otternonsense Avatar
54 months ago
Too little too late. It's a disgrace that Siri is the very first "smart" assistant to hit the market and it's still as dumb as a bag of dongles.

In my case it cannot even register basic commands like "call dad" when I invoke Siri on the watch, and it constantly pops up at random giving me irrelevant song lyrics or "sorry could not find anything about.." just by picking up random phrases while I'm talking to people.

The only "improvement" Siri has received over the years was poaching Workflow and turning it into 'Shortcuts".
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
itsmilo Avatar
54 months ago
Make siri multi lingual already. Every time I get an iMessage in English to my AirPods I just wanna either die or laugh when it tries to pronounce it the German way.

one of my board games came with a google home and its miles a head of siri. Even the voice sounds more natural and don’t come at me with all the privacy restrictions limiting Siri. If I decide to buy a SMART speaker that LISTENS to me, I guess I am fine with the privacy part anyway.

also the few times I try to send a message with Siri, I spent more time correcting her mistakes than just typing the whole message out myself in the first place
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AgentOSX Avatar
54 months ago
I would be happy if they could just make the home automation voice commands reliable with any of my HomePods. The Siri on those is beyond terrible.

Voice commands never work until 5 minutes after I use the Home app on my iPad/iPhone and the devices are on.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CordovaLark Avatar
54 months ago
At this rate Bixby has bypassed Siri.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
drlamb Avatar
54 months ago

I would be happy if they could just make the home automation voice commands reliable with any of my HomePods. The Siri on those is beyond terrible.

Voice commands never work until 5 minutes after I use the Home app on my iPad/iPhone and the devices are on.
Oh my god. I've commented before on having to factory reset my homepods (Stereo pair) to delete an alarm that Siri was adamant wasn't on.


I figured I'd trust Siri again with my alarm this morning but then changed my mind and set an alarm on my iPhone instead. It went like this:

Me: "Hey Siri, turn off my 4am alarm"

Siri: "Okay, your 4am alarm is now off."

4am: Right homepod starts going off. *WTF*

Me: "Hey Siri, STOP!"

Left homepod: "There's nothing playing here!"
Right homepod: Still going off.

It took me shifting over in bed towards the right homepod to get it to turn off. So much for the new update being better.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)