Apple opens up to collaboration in AI

Experts suggest that the move is likely to help Apple attract new talent on board

Here is what Apple is thinking as it chases its peers in machine learning. If you want to beat 'em, join 'em. | Photo: Reuters

Apple, which has a reputation for being secretive and protective of its drawing board, appears to be making an uncharacteristic move towards transparency. Hints are that it plans to allow its AI researchers to publish their findings and thus engage more deeply with the academic community.

 

“Can we publish?

Yes . Do we engage with academia?

Yes .” read the powerpoint screen during the speech by Ruslan Salakhutdinov, the firm’s director of AI research, at the NIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems) conference in Barcelona on Tuesday. Ok, not so much an announcement, but a definite indication of Apple’s plans to become less hermetic.

After the acquisition of Siri in 2010, Apple got its hands on machine-learning companies Tuplejump and Turi earlier this year. Its ambition of building a self-driving car, christened Project Titan, also needs significant AI inputs.

Ruslan Salakhutdinov

Salakhutdin is himself an Associate Professor in the Machine Learning department at Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science in Pittsburgh. He was hired to head Apple’s AI department in October this year. The move was expected then to provide an important bridge between academia and tech development.

Why this move may work for Apple

The field of AI is highly competitive, and Apple had good reason to be secretive about its independent AI research. After all, intellectual property is worth hoarding. So how is becoming more transparent supposed to help Apple expand its knowledge of Deep Learning?

Well, experts suggest that the move is likely to help Apple attract new talent on board. Given the opportunity to publicly share their work and gain professional recognition, capable scientists may be encouraged to join Apple without fear that their work will be co-opted by the company or get lost in the conveyor belt.

Apple is the one major tech firm missing from the nascent Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit Society . This consortium, announced this September, includes Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, Amazon and Google. It was established to “study and formulate best practices on AI technologies, to advance the public’s understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society”.

If the mushrooming of devices such as Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Facebook’s plans for AI are any sign of trends in technology, Apple’s move to become more collaborative in this field may be a sound one.