Microsoft Is Acquiring London’s AI-Driven SwiftKey For $250M

Microsoft is understood to be acquiring London-based SwiftKey, the startup which employed artificial intelligence to create a ground-breaking predictive smartphone keyboard, according to sources. The Financial Times is reporting that the deal is “around $250m”. TechCrunch understands the figure is just under that amount. UPDATE: Investor sources say the deal, which is all-cash, is definitely going through and will be announced imminently.

UPDATE 2: It’s confirmed.

The companies are understood to have been in talks for a number of months. Staff were told earlier today about the deal. SwiftKey declined to comment.

SwiftKey raised a total of $21.59 million from Octopus Ventures and Index Ventures, while UK celebrity Stephen Fry was an early angel investor.

SwiftKey’s keyboard and SDK is now on more than 500 million Android and iOS smartphones. And while its technology is hugely time-saving for users, the AI-powered platform could have far more uses for Microsoft than just keyboards. The predictive engine behind that keyboard could be put to many more uses.

Furthermore, by acquiring SwiftKey’s staf, and founders Dr. Ben Medlock (CTO) and Jon Reynolds (CEO), they are getting a kick-ass team which is so at the forefront of AI that even Professor Stephen Hawking has praised their work after they worked on a project to enhance the communication system used by the world-renowned scientist.

Here’s how SwiftKey works:

Comments

What is your preferred smartphone screen size

Screen envy. We all have it. Or do we? See, that’s the thing, I’m just not so sure. One thing I am sure about is that our phone screens have gotten progressively bigger and bigger over the last few years. The funny thing is, we as a society have taken that ball and run with it, like we just don’t care. But I always thought we did care? Some time ago, when phones were in the sub-5” range, we used to have a term called “phablet” which described an almost absurdly big phone. The definition varied from person to person. I always considered a phone with a screen 5.5” or bigger to be a phablet. The Galaxy Note fell into that category. The Lumia 1520 certainly did. There are others as well. I was safely ensconced in the 4.5” area at the time with my Lumia 920. What did I know? Leon’s getting laaaaaaaarrrger But slowly, phones started topping the 5” mark. I’m not talking about phablets here, I’m talking about normal flagship phones – the Galaxy S4 (barely) and the HTC One (M7) are ...

Facebook Now Supports PGP To Send You Encrypted Emails

You can now instruct Facebook to encrypt every email it sends to you so nobody — not even the NSA — is likely to be able to read your messages anytime soon. All you have to do is import your public PGP key into your Facebook settings and you’re good to go. The problem here, of course, is that most people have no idea how public/private key email encryption works and how to even get started with it. In the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks, a number of organizations, including Google, promised to completely hide the complexities of end-to-end email encryption from regular users. Very few of these products have materialized so far, however — not for lack of trying, but because this is actually a very complex problem, both from a technical and user experience perspective. Facebook uses the well-established PGP scheme (the GNU Privacy Guard implementation of OpenPGP, to be precise) to encrypt messages and tools lik...

How to prevent Recent and Phone Favorite contacts from showing in your iOS task switcher

When you double-click your iPhone's home button, you will be greeted with the task switching screen, which presents you with card deck-style snapshots of your active apps to freely browse and switch to. With iOS 8, however, where most iPhones are at the moment, Apple introduced a Favorites row there, with circular pictures of your most recently used contacts. Most people aren't bothered by their recent contacts appearing there, but for some this means easy snooping on who they've called or texted last, or simply unnecessary clutter. If you don't want to wait until iOS 9 hits and gets rid of these circular shenanigans in your task switcher, here's what you need to do to get rid of them: 1. Go to the Settings app, and scroll down to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section; 2. From Mail, Contacts, Calendars, look for the Contacts section, which will be hosting the Show in App Switcher options; 3. Tap on Show in App Switche...

Intel announces the first 14 nanometre processor

At the Computex conference in Taipei, chipmaker Intel has revealed a fanless mobile PC reference design using the first of its next-generation 14nm "Broadwell" processors. The 2 in 1 pictured here is a 12.5" screen that is just 7.2 mm thick with keyboard detached and weighs 670 grams. The Surface Pro 3 – for comparison – is 9.1 mm thick and weighs 800 grams. It includes a media dock that provides additional cooling for a burst of performance. The next-generation chip is purpose-built for 2 in 1s and will hit the market later in 2014 . Called the Intel Core M, it will be the most energy-efficient Intel Core processor in the company's history with power usage cut by up to 45 percent, resulting in 60 percent less heat. The majority of designs based on this new chip are expected to be fanless, with up to 32 hours of battery life, offering both a lightning-fast tablet and razor-thin laptop. Intel is also delivering innovation and performance for the ...

How to Choose BitLocker Drive Encryption Method and Cipher Strength in Windows 10?

BitLocker is an encryption method that enables users to lock the different drives in Windows . The drives which are protected by BitLocker are accessed by passwords. Windows has provided opportunity for users to choose and configure the cipher strength and algorithm used by BitLocker Drive Encryption. This can be achieved via the Local Group Policy editor. The Local Policy Editor will let you configure and select the cipher method for BitLocker encryption. By default it is not configured but you can choose your choiceable encryption method by enabling the Policy Setting. If the drive is already encrypted or if encryption is in progress, the encyption method will have no effect. If you leave the policy unconfigured, then BitLocker will use the default encryption method of AES 128-bit with Diffuser or the encryption method specified by the setup script. Steps to Choose BitLocker Drive Encryption Method and Cipher Strength in Windows 10 1. ...

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog