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Apple has acquired a secretive Israeli start-up Q.AI whose technology can analyse facial expressions to understand “silent speech”, in one of the iPhone maker’s biggest ever acquisitions.
The deal is designed to help the iPhone maker narrow its gap with Meta, Google and OpenAI in the growing race to create new kinds of wearable devices to speak to AI.
The deal valued four-year-old Q.AI at close to $2bn, according to people familiar with the terms.
In a blog post, one of Q.AI’s financial backers, GV — formerly Google Ventures — said that the deal marked Apple’s “second-largest acquisition in its history.”
Patents filed by Q.AI show its technology being used in headphones or glasses, using “facial skin micro movements” to communicate without talking.
Such a system could allow Apple customers wearing headphones and smart glasses to have private, non-verbal discussions with an AI assistant.
Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice-president of hardware technologies, said Q.AI is “a remarkable company that is pioneering new and creative ways to use imaging and machine learning”.
Silicon Valley companies are also rushing to develop rival AI-powered “wearable” devices.
Meta has had success with its Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses, which let wearers talk to its AI, while Google and Snap are preparing to launch smart glasses later this year.
OpenAI last year acquired former Apple designer Jony Ive’s start-up IO, which is said to be developing a compact device for interacting with ChatGPT.
Investors have been fretting that Apple will be left behind in the AI race after delaying the launch of an upgraded Siri voice assistant, a system that is widely considered to lag far behind Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
It recently struck a deal with Google to use the search group’s Gemini systems to power its AI services, branded Apple Intelligence.
Apple rarely makes large acquisitions, instead preferring to quietly “acqui-hire” talent or secure intellectual property from smaller start-ups, that often fall under the radar.
Its biggest deal to date is its $3bn acquisition of Beats in 2014, which helped the tech giant catch up with Spotify as it pushed into music streaming with Apple Music.
Some of its largest acquisitions have come in the semiconductor space as it has brought more of its chip design in-house over the years. These included a $1bn acquisition of Intel’s smartphone modem business in 2019, a $600mn acquisition of Dialog Semiconductor in 2018 and a $500mn acquisition of Israeli flash memory firm Anobit in 2011.
Other more recent deals have reflected the iPhone maker’s focus on computer vision and artificial intelligence, following the launch of the Vision Pro headset and ‘Apple Intelligence’, its suite of AI features. These include last year’s acquisitions of Israeli 3D avatar start-up TrueMeeting and generative AI company Pointable.
Q.AI was founded by Aviad Maizels, Yonatan Wexler and Avi Barliya in Tel Aviv in 2022. It has been operating largely in secret ever since, with Wexler hinting in a social media post soon after it launched: “I can’t tell you anything yet about our product — but I bet it will leave you speechless.”
Its financial backers also include Kleiner Perkins, Spark Capital and Exor.
Some of Q.AI’s team previously worked on another Israeli start-up, PrimeSense, that Apple acquired in 2013. PrimeSense’s 3D sensing technology formed a key part of the iPhone’s FaceID login system.