Magic Pony Technology is a London-based company that uses neural networks and machine learning to enhance images for a number of applications, including increasing image quality and virtual and augmented reality graphics development.
Twitter has reportedly shelled out $150 million for the company, making it the the third machine learning business in Twitter’s portfolio alongside Whetlab and Madbits. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stating that machine learning is “increasing at the core” of everything Twitter builds.
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As reported by Techmeme, retention bonuses for Magic Pony Technology’s 11 staff, including the co-founders Zehan Wang and CEO Rob Bishop are part of the deal.
“Magic Pony’s machine learning technology will help us build strength into our deep learning teams with world-class talent, so Twitter can continue to be the best place to see what’s happening and why it matters, first,” Dorsey said in a statement.
“We value deep learning research to help make our world better, and we will keep doing our part to share our work and learnings with the community.”
Magic Pony Technology works mauch like the human eye. It enhances images with information from both within the picture itself and what can be recreated from composites of similar pictures
“We’ve been developing state-of-the-art machine learning based approaches for visual processing on web, desktop and mobile over the past 18 months, filing over 20 international patents and publishing at top conferences along the way,” Magic Pony Technology says.
“Today we’re excited to announce that we’re joining forces with Twitter to use our technology to improve the visual experiences that are delivered across their apps.”
The collaboration hopes to achieve accelerated research and growing Magic Pony Technology’s team, which will serve as a “European homebase for Twitter’s machine learning efforts”.