Apple's Strategic Move: Acquiring Prompt AI's Talent and Technology

Apple nears deal to acquire talent and technology from computer vision startup Prompt AI

Apple is in late-stage talks to acquire top talent from computer vision startup Prompt AI, as well as the company's technology, CNBC has learned. Leadership at Prompt told employees of the pending transaction at an all-hands meeting on Thursday and said that those who don't end up joining Apple will be paid a reduced salary, and encouraged to apply for open roles at the company, according to audio that was accessed by CNBC. The 11-person company was approached by other potential suitors, including Elon Musk's xAI and Neuralink, executives said in the meeting. Prompt was founded in 2023 and raised a $5 million seed round that year led by AIX and Abstract Ventures. Co-founders include CEO Tete Xiao, a notable AI researcher with a Phd in computer science from UC Berkeley, and President Trevor Darrell who was a founder of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) lab. Xiao and Darrell didn't respond to requests for comment, nor did Apple. Neither xAI nor Neuralink immediately responded to a request for comment. Investors will get paid some money in the deal but "won't be made whole," executives said in the meeting. Prompt employees were asked to refrain from mentioning Apple until further notice while searching for other jobs or updating friends and family on their situation. Prompt's flagship app, Seemour, connects to home security cameras, adding sophisticated capabilities. The technology helps cameras detect specific people, pets and other animals or objects around a household, and to send alerts and text-based descriptions of unusual activity or answer questions about what's been happening in front of the camera. Xiao told employees at the meeting that while Prompt AI's technology and the Seemour app were working well, the business model wasn't. The company is retiring the Seemour app, and plans to inform users their data will be deleted and privacy protected, executives said. Silicon Valley's tech giants have been snapping up top AI talent through acquihires, in part to bolster their AI research and development in a way that helps them skirt regulatory concerns. Apple's deal for Prompt is much smaller than recent high-profile transactions, such as Meta's $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI that brought with it the company's founder and other execs, and Google's $2.4 billion deal for Windsurf's CEO and leaders that included licensing fees. Apple has historically avoided making large acquisitions. In the half-century since its founding, Apple's biggest purchase was the $3 billion deal for Beats Electronics in 2014. The company prefers to quietly acquire smaller teams and use their talent and technology to develop features for its product lines. Some analysts have attributed Apple's relatively slow progress in AI to its unwillingness to make big purchases. Its stock is down 2% this year, badly trailing major indexes and the worst performance among the tech megcaps. While Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker's foray into generative AI, has underwhelmed critics and faced delays, the company achieved technical success with computer vision, especially in its mixed reality headset, Vision Pro. The iPhone also has the ability to decipher what objects, people or pets are in photographs taken by users. Prompt's technology and talent are likely to be part of Apple's HomeKit smart home division. -- CNBC's Kif Leswing contributed to this report.

Apple may acquire Prompt AI's team and technology - 9to5Mac

According to CNBC, Apple is nearing a deal to acquire "talent and technology" of computer vision startup Prompt AI. Here are the details. The report says that Apple's deal with Prompt seems all but confirmed, as the startup's leadership held an all-hands meeting on Thursday to discuss the agreement and inform their next steps: "Leadership at Prompt told employees of the pending transaction at an all-hands meeting on Thursday and said that those who don't end up joining Apple will be paid a reduced salary, and encouraged to apply for open roles at the company (...)." And "Investors will get paid some money in the deal but 'won't be made whole,' executives said in the meeting. Prompt employees were asked to refrain from mentioning Apple until further notice while searching for other jobs or updating friends and family on their situation." Prompt's flagship product is Seemour, applies AI to security cameras in order to "detect specific people, pets and other animals or objects around a household, and to send alerts and text-based descriptions of unusual activity or answer questions about what's been happening in front of the camera," per CNBC's description. While acquiring talent and technology, rather than full companies, is not a new strategy, it has become a common approach for major tech companies in the AI sector in recent years, partly to avoid FTC scrutiny. Last year, Microsoft paid approximately $650 million to license technology from Inflection AI, while also bringing on most of its staff, including co-founder Mustafa Suleyman. Google structured similar acquihire-style deals, first with Character.AI in 2024, and again this year with Windsurf. Meta has also followed this playbook, investing in Scale AI and hiring its CEO, Alexandr Wang, alongside key members of his team. Amazon did a similar thing with Adept. In Apple and Prompt's case, CNBC reports that Seemour, the startup's flagship app, will be discontinued, and that users will be informed that "their data will be deleted and privacy protected". The report also mentions that Prompt, which had been struggling to establish a sustainable business model, had recently been approached by xAI and Neuralink, both of which are controlled by Elon Musk. It's unclear how much Apple may pay for Prompt's staff and technology, but if the acquisition goes through, details of the agreement will likely emerge.

Apple Poised To Acquire The Computer Vision Company Prompt AI, Whose Seemour App Will Be Retired

Apple is not generally known for splurging on fancy acquisitions. Yet, the Cupertino giant appears poised to make an exception in the case of Prompt AI, whose talent and intellectual property might just be the adrenaline shot that Apple needs to regain its footing in the AI sphere. As per the reporting by CNBC, Apple is nearing a deal to acquire Prompt AI. Relevant details include: For the benefit of those who might not be aware, Prompt AI has been working towards developing ambient AI that leverages computer vision and natural language to "sense" the surroundings in real-time. The company's Seemour app connects to home security cameras, allowing an accurate detection of specific people, pets, or objects. It also sends alerts after detecting suspicious activity, describing the scene in detail, if prompted. As mentioned earlier, Apple is generally not known for its outlandish acquisitions. After all, the company's largest acquisition to-date is its $3 billion deal for Beats Electronics back in 2014. However, as the Cupertino giant continues to juggle with the shortcomings of Apple Intelligence, it might be pivoting towards acquisitions now as a panacea of sorts. In doing so, Apple appears to be borrowing from Meta's playbook, which recently acquired Scale AI in a $14.3 billion deal. As a refresher, Apple announced a number of AI features clubbed under the Apple Intelligence banner in June 2024. However, the last two features - in-app actions and personal context awareness, where Siri leverages personal data to offer tailored services such as scouring the Messages app to find a specific podcast mentioned in a text conversation - continue to experience rollout delays, reinforcing the perception around Apple's supposed AI-related inaptitude. The acquisition of Prompt AI might also relate to Apple's new pivot towards AI-enabled smart glasses in order to better compete with Meta's assortment of offerings in this category.

Apple Looks to Acquire Tech and Expertise From Prompt AI | PYMNTS.com

Founded in 2023, Prompt's flagship app is Seemour, which connects to home security cameras to help them detect specific people, pets and and objects around a household, and to send alerts and text-based descriptions when unusual activity occurs. PYMNTS has contacted Apple and Prompt for comment but has not yet gotten a reply. The report noted that Apple's planned deal is part of a larger trend of U.S. tech giants employing "acquihires" to pull in artificial intelligence (AI) talent. Other deals in this area include Meta's $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI that brought with it the company's founder and other executives, and Google's $2.4 billion deal for Windsurf's chief executive and other leaders. In other Apple AI news, PYMNTS wrote recently about the company's efforts to create a ChatGPT-like iPhone app to test a revamped version of Siri. Still, the tool is restricted to internal testing only and will not be released to consumers. "The cautious stance was evident at the iPhone 17 launch, where executives emphasized chip performance and design upgrades," PYMNTS wrote. "AI features such as live translation in Messages, FaceTime, and visual recognition in Photos were mentioned briefly, but most had been previewed months earlier at Apple's developer conference. The shift marked a reversal from the iPhone 16 debut, when AI took center stage before delays slowed deployment." Apple's prolonged testing state could leave it behind when it comes to influencing consumer expectations, with recent reports showing the company's Siri losing relevance. "By contrast, rivals are collecting vast consumer data from products already deployed at scale," PYMNTS added.