Reports state that early this year, Apple acquired DarwinAI, a Canadian business, to expand its AI team. Smaller and more effective AI systems were the main goals of DarwinAI, which also developed AI technology for component inspection during manufacturing.

After Apple acquired DarwinAI, DarwinAI’s social media pages and website were removed. The artificial intelligence section of Apple currently includes dozens of startups that were previously part of DarwinAI. Alexander Wong is a director in Apple’s AI group and a researcher in AI who worked on DarwinAI.

Apple provided the same response when asked about acquisitions to validate the acquisition. The statement “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time” omits any discussion of the company’s goals.

Apple is working hard to develop artificial intelligence features for its upcoming iOS 18 and macOS 15 operating systems in an attempt to catch up with Microsoft, Google, and other players in the AI business.

Apple must include generative AI into a number of products if it hopes to compete with services like Microsoft Bing, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and other generative AI solutions. Large language models are being tested by Apple, and Siri, Shortcuts, Messages, Apple Music, and more services are all getting AI features soon.

DarwinAI’s attempts to create smaller AI systems may help Apple achieve its goal of having AI functions run on-device for privacy-related reasons.

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, has stated that the company will “break new ground” in generative AI by 2024. “We believe it will unlock transformative opportunities for our users,” Cook stated.