Apple buys machine-learning startup Inductiv to make Siri better

Apple bought machine-learning startup Inductiv adding to more than a dozen AI-related acquisitions by the technology giant in the past few years. Apple acquired AI voice assistant startup Voysis in the recent past to help improve Siri as well.

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.”

Inductiv developed technology that uses artificial intelligence to automate the task of identifying and correcting errors in data. Having clean data is important for machine learning, a popular and powerful type of AI that helps software improve with less human invention.