Google Buys Jetpac: Former iOS App's Deep Learning Artificial Intelligence Useful for Maps, Advertising
Top tech companies have been on a purchasing spree this year, proving that it is indeed the age of technology with big acquisitions, such as Facebook obtaining WhatsApp and Apple's acquisition of Beats. Now, a rather surprising purchase was just made by Google as the maker of Android buys Jetpac, an application allegedly exclusive to Apple's iOS, GuardianLV reported.
Accordingly, the city guide application has been pulled out of the App Store -- a possibly strategic move to gain an ever so slight advantage in the mobile phone application competition between the major platforms.
Jetpac City Guides was a popular app that analyzes photos gathered by Instagram (another widely used application that was bought by Facebook for a hefty sum) to generate city maps or guides. The application, based in San Francisco, then makes the information available to the public for their use.
While no official announcement has been released by Google regarding the acquisition, it has not stopped Jetpac from releasing its own statement. Also, Jetpac has removed the application from the App Store, and its services will be discontinued starting this coming September, according to Business Insider. Aside from this news, both firms have not revealed much regarding the matter.
The app is quite unique in that it is one of the very few apps that focuses on deep learning technology, which is a rather new type of artificial intelligence. Its technology uses machine learning research, allowing the application to deliver better results to the specific location the user typed in.
Google's acquisition of Jetpac can actually work better for the app since Android is more versatile than iOS in terms of hardware availability. Furthermore, deep learning technology, its research and application were all from the work of a prominent Google researcher, Geoffery Hinton. Finally, Google's Maps and Navigation would fit perfectly with the app's services.
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