Photograph Credit score: Pao Pattarapol
Apple has acquired Q.ai, a heretofore little-discussed AI audio startup that claims it’s poised to revolutionize communication.
To date, the buyout – and its reportedly $1.6 billion price ticket – has to some extent flown beneath the radar. That’s presumably due partially to the concentrate on Apple’s newest earnings report (together with record-high companies income of $30.01 billion) and, on the other finish of the transaction, Q.ai’s minimal digital footprint.
“Constructing one thing actually cool. Can’t discuss it. Actually,” Q.ai co-founder and CEO Aviad Maizels’ LinkedIn expertise description reads.
Much more curiously, the Tel Aviv-based startup’s “about” part spells out that the corporate has “discovered a method to take it [communication] to the subsequent stage enabling tremendous excessive bandwidth, unprecedented privateness, accessibility, multilingualism and far more.”
“Converse volumes with out saying a phrase,” the identical textual content continues, with Q.ai’s detail-light web site indicating that the enterprise is striving to “craft a brand new form of quiet.”
Put in another way, the just-sold entity is seemingly engaged on AI audio/communication tech, however particulars are few and much between. (After all, we’ll have to attend for info pertaining to mentioned tech’s potential music-side overlap.)
Nevertheless, Q.ai final yr filed a patent utility regarding “facial pores and skin micromovements,” and particularly the flexibility to investigate them en path to detecting feelings, mouthed or spoken phrases, and extra, per Reuters. Moreover, Maizels in 2013 bought PrimeSense to Apple; the iPhone developer proceeded to leverage the concerned choices into enhanced facial recognition capabilities throughout its units.
One other piece of the puzzle: Maizels’ different lively roles at distinct corporations. Most notably, the skilled in 2016 based (and stays government chairman of) Bionaut Labs, which makes a speciality of “remote-controlled micro-robots revolutionizing the remedy of central nervous system issues.”
Plus, Maizels is the founding father of NewMoo, a molecular farming startup targeted on rising “actual cheese, inside crops.”
Individually, Google Ventures (GV), having backed Q.ai on the seed (in 2022) and Collection A (2023) levels, supplied a bit extra perception.
In keeping with GV, the startup’s been working in stealth from the get-go – which means it’s been growing its services for about 4 years – and the buyout marks “Apple’s second-largest acquisition in its historical past.”
Relating to the laborious numbers behind the sale, Reuters pointed to an general valuation of $1.6 billion; the Monetary Instances, citing nameless sources, positioned the deal’s measurement at “near $2bn.”
Lastly, Q.ai’s reportedly 100-person workforce is about to affix Apple; this consists of Maizels in addition to fellow co-founders Avi Barliya and Yonatan Wexler. The latter particular person got here aboard Q.ai in early 2022, after 11 years with OrCam, which harnesses AI “to compensate for misplaced visible talents” through “a discrete wearable digicam.”
