According to the Financial TimesApple recently completed its acquisition of Israeli AI audio startup Q.ai. While the official amount has not been disclosed, the deal is rumored to be close to $20 billion, making it Apple's second-largest acquisition since its $30 billion purchase of Beats in 2014.
The Q.ai founding team had already...LinkedIn pageThe news of him joining Apple has been confirmed.
Specializing in "understanding whispers" and facial micro-motion detection
Founded in 2022, Q.ai is an Israeli AI technology company whose core technologies focus on audio signal processing and machine learning. Unlike typical noise reduction technologies, Q.ai possesses a unique feature – "Whisper Interpretation," which can accurately interpret a user's whispers or murmurs and amplify human voices in extremely noisy environments.
In addition, Q.ai has developed a sensing technology that can detect minute movements of facial muscles. The market widely predicts that Apple will apply these technologies to the Vision Pro spatial computing device and future AirPods products, thereby improving the accuracy and immersion of voice interaction.
Is the father of Face ID back? PrimeSense team once again favored?
There's actually an interesting detail to this acquisition. Aviad Maizels, co-founder of Q.ai, was also one of the co-founders of PrimeSense, which was acquired by Apple in 2013.
After acquiring PrimeSense, Apple used its 3D sensing technology as the basis for the later iPhone Face ID design. This latest acquisition of Aviad Maizels' new company by Apple demonstrates Apple's high regard for the team's capabilities in sensing and AI algorithms.
Following the acquisition, the Q.ai founding team is expected to be fully integrated into Apple's development department.
