Artificial intelligence (AI) by far stands as one of the main areas of technology that has garnered a considerable amount of interest, especially in recent years. In fact, Tim Cook, the chief executive officer of Apple, recently admitted that the company has been working on developing what it calls “the mother of all AI project.’’
In a statement made by Tim Cook to Bloomberg last summer, he gave a glimpse into Apple’s much-awaited self-drive car project. During the interview, he also asserted that the company was focusing on developing autonomous systems. In addition, Cook emphasized his statement by saying that the task was one of the most complicated AI projects to execute.
For the past few years, the technology giant has been carrying out a considerable portion of its artificial intelligence (AI) research from a skyscraper located in Seattle. Apple opened up an engineering office in this city after acquiring Union Bay Networks, a cloud computing startup, in 2014.
The Seattle-based office located at Two Union Square has undergone considerable transformations since it was set up. Aside from several changes, Apple has managed to grow the office’s operations on several occasions.
Currently, according to a new report compiled by GeekWire, the tech giant is working on an ongoing expansion of its office in Seattle to allow it to handle more operations, especially those based on artificial intelligence.
Even so, office permits relating to the undertaking claim that Apple is looking forward to increasing the footprint of the Seattle research center to 70,000 square feet.
At the Two Union Square building in Seattle, Apple occupies about five floors. Even so, its recent endeavors for office expansion may see the company occupy an additional floor to top up its existing ones. According to the report by GeekWire, the extra space or floor can accommodate about 350 to 375 more workers.
In response to its expansion plans, the technology giant has published an advert for 19 new job vacancies that revolve around various fields such as smart home technology, natural language processing, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Looking at such endeavors by the company, it is safe to conclude that Tim Cook and his executives are looking forward to expanding the artificial intelligence capabilities of Apple.
The news about the expansion of Apple’s AI capabilities follows the company’s recent scouting of John Giannandrea, who previously worked for Google, in a bid to lead both its self-driving and Siri, its voice-activated assistant, programs.
The New York Times acquired an email from Apple’s chief executive officer, Tim Cook, directly informing his employees about the appointment of the head of some of its key programs, Giannandrea.
Tim Cook stated in the email that Apple’s technology has to be combined with all the values that the company holds dear. What’s more, he acknowledged that John Giannandrea shares the company’s commitment to its thoughtful approach and privacy, especially as Apple continues to manufacture computers that are even more personal and smarter than the current ones.
Source Idropnews
