Apple transforms Turi into dedicated machine learning division to build future product features

Following its acquisition of machine learning platform Turi earlier this month, Apple is now growing the team that will serve as the company’s new machine learning division focusing on integrating the tech into new and existing products, 9to5Mac has learned.

Apple confirmed the acquisition of Turi earlier this month with its usual statement that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time,” but it didn’t offer any details on what it had planned for the company.

We’ve learned Apple has now started growing the team that it acquired from Turi by hiring application developers and data scientists for the new machine learning division that will remain in Seattle where Turi was originally based. 

The new machine learning division will work alongside Apple’s product teams to prototype new features and improvements that could be integrated into Apple’s existing apps and future products. Prior to Apple’s acquisition, the Turi platform offered a number of use cases for software developers to implement machine learning tech including recommendation engines, fraud detection, sentiment and customer/user analysis, and more. Apple has newly posted job listings on its website for similar positions on the Turi machine learning team. 

Following news of the Turi acquisition earlier this month, a separate report noted that Apple may be looking to expand its presence in Seattle with hints it was interested in up to 354,000 square feet of office space that could accommodate up to 2,300 employees. That would significantly increase the office space the company currently has in the area. 

Apple is already using machine learning in many of its products that could benefit from the new team. An interview with executives following the Turi acquisition offered some insights into the company’s recent work with machine learning in Siri, iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, as well as the upcoming iOS 10 release arriving this fall.

As expected, Apple didn’t confirm the $200 million it reportedly paid for Turi.