Apple has acquired VocalIQ to help Siri understand natural language

Apple has confirmed to Financial Times that it has acquired VocalIQ, a Cambridge-based startup that develops platforms for voice interfaces. While the company didn’t go into detail about the acquisition, including how much the deal cost, it’s likely that VocalIQ will be used to bolster Siri’s speech processing and machine learning capabilities. More importantly, VocalIQ specializes in making things like Siri better understand natural language, which makes it to where users can interact with them much more casually. 

Natural language processing firm VocalIQ, a U.K. company with a particular interest in voice control within automobiles, has reportedly been acquired by Apple, in a likely attempt to bolster its voice-driven personal assistant Siri. Apple confirmed the deal to the Financial Times, but declined to give anymore specifics, such as a purchase price, for its latest acquisition. While VocalIQ’s technology could be applied in a number of ways, the company was especially focused on voice recognition in the automotive world, where it worked on projects with General Motors. Like Siri, VocalIQ’s technology is focused on the understanding of natural language, allowing users to interact with their devices in a casual, conversational way rather than memorizing prompts that the system will understand. The company stems from the University of Cambridge Dialogue Systems Group. It’s expected that the VocalIQ team will remain in Cambridge, according to the Times.