Whether it's Microsoft trying to help Indian farmers predict when it's going to rain, Google improving its multi-lingual translation service, Facebook trying to figure out who you should be friends with next, or IBM's Watson trying to change the health industry, global giants are increasingly betting on AI (artificial intelligence) to expand and perfect their services.
But even as these companies -- and many more -- race to be the frontrunner in the nascent AI space, many believe that it will take years of efforts to fully realise the potential and reap benefits of how this growing technology will shape the products of today and tomorrow.
In doing so, companies are aggressively looking at talents and startups to bring them on-board -- or put their money in -- and incorporate their learnings. In fact, dozens of startups focused on AI solutions have been bagged by Apple[1], Google[2], Microsoft[3], Facebook[4], and Amazon[5] among other companies in the past years.
We've a run-down on all the popular AI-focused companies that have been acquired by the giant. As you will notice in the list, these acquisitions only go far as back as five-six years, reaffirming how nascent this space is.
Halli Labs
Google took many by surprise this week when the news got out that it has acquired the Bengaluru-based AI startup[6]. Much about the four-month old startup remains unknown, but we know that some of its founding members came from marketplace Stayzilla. Halli Labs is joining Google’s Next Billion team, which aims to solve the last mile problem by serving people from emerging markets.
Tuplejump
Apple confirmed last year that it had acquired the small Indian...