According to a report from CNBC, Apple is reportedly close to an “acqui-hire” deal for computer vision company Prompt AI, securing both top talent and intellectual property from the startup.
According to reports, Prompt AI’s leadership informed its 11 employees on Thursday that the transaction was imminent. While those who join Apple will be fully integrated, other employees will receive a reduced severance and were encouraged to apply for open roles within the acquiring company.
Prompt AI was founded in 2023 and had previously raised a $5 million seed round. Its co-founders include CEO Tete Xiao, a prominent AI researcher from UC Berkeley, and President Trevor Darrell, a founder of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) lab.
Prompt AI’s core technology centers on computer vision, which is the science of teaching machines to interpret and understand the world from images or video. The startup’s flagship app, Seemour, demonstrated sophisticated capabilities by linking to home security cameras and offering advanced features such as:
- Detecting specific people, pets, or objects in a household.
- Sending alerts and text-based descriptions of unusual activity.
- Answering user questions about events captured by the camera.
This kind of technology is an ideal fit for Apple’s HomeKit smart home division, which has been a recent area of focus for the company.
The acquisition also continues a long-standing strategy for Apple, which often acquires small companies primarily for their intellectual property and talented personnel. This differs from competitors like Meta and Google, who have recently engaged in much larger, multi-billion-dollar acquisition and investment deals for more established AI companies. In fact, CEO Tim Cook previously stated that Apple typically acquires a new company every two to three weeks, specifically looking for talent and IP.
While the founders and Apple have yet to comment publicly, Prompt AI executives noted during their meeting that the company’s business model was unsustainable, despite the functionality of the Seemour app and underlying technology. The app is being retired, and users will be informed that their data will be deleted for privacy protection.
Interestingly, executives also noted that the company was approached by other potential suitors, including Elon Musk’s xAI and Neuralink, before moving forward with Apple.
This acquisition of computer vision talent may also help bolster Apple’s AI efforts, which, until the announcement of Apple Intelligence, had received criticism for lagging behind competitors. The technology is similar to existing Apple features like object and person identification in the Photos app and the camera system within the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset.
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