Anybody following developments at Apple knows they're a very secretive company. Instead, the tech giant seems to prefer that the public glean what we can from the kind of talent it's hiring and its patent applications.
But that may not be the case for its foray into artificial intelligence (AI). Twitter posts reveal that AI director, Russ Salakhutdinov, has announced that Apple will be publishing its AI research and engaging more with the academe.
Apple will start publishing, according to @rsalakhu at #nips2016 pic.twitter.com/I0ndKKc2vB
— hardmaru (@hardmaru) December 6, 2016
Apart from the tweet, we really don't know much. Apple has yet to make any formal announcement on the matter. We don't know if it will be publishing everything or cherry picking the data it wants everyone to know.
Why this departure? According to Engadget, it may be because the company wants more AI researchers to work with them. Apple has been acquiring AI talent, but that kind of talent wants the recognition for the breakthroughs they accomplish. That's something you can't have if the parent company is as secretive as Apple.
It remains to be seen how this will affect the company, but it can do nothing but good for the field. AI research benefits from more brains working on research, and many new AI efforts have been aimed at "democratizing" AI and making it available for everyone.
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