Apple headhunts top researcher in AI from Carnegie Mellon University

Ruslan Salakhutdinov persuaded to trade in academia for 'Apple-demia'

Computer giant Apple has turned to academia in a bid to keep up with rivals in the race for artificial intelligence talent.

It has hired Ruslan Salakhutdinov, currently an associate professor in machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, to head up research in this area as the company looks to compete more closely with the likes of Google and Microsoft.

Salakhutdinov revealed the move in a post on Twitter.

He called on others with the relevant skills to join him with a link to a job posting. The posts are for research scientists in the area of machine learning and give an insight into Apple's hopes in this area.

"We are looking for exceptional hands-on research scientists with a proven track record in a variety of machine learning methods from the realms of deep learning, reinforcement learning, unsupervised learning and computer perception," said the listing.

"You will join a world-class, multi-disciplinary team and participate in cutting-edge research in deep learning, machine intelligence and AI. You will solve real-world, large-scale problems."

The move comes as Apple looks to push on with its efforts in AI after some had warned that the company had fallen behind in the market, especially as it at one time probably held the lead with its Siri service in 2011.

Apple has since let this slip and rivals, notably Google, have pushed ahead. The firm is set to launch its Pixel phone containing the Google Assistant service that functions as a far smarter version of Siri.