Twitter today announced it has acquired Magic Pony Technology, a London-based developer of machine learning and visual processing technology.
Financial details of the acquisition are not disclosed. This move will expand the machine learning capabilities in Twitter’s video technology. The micro-blogging site’s Cortex group will incorporate with Magic Pony’s machine learning technology.
“Machine learning is increasingly at the core of everything we build at Twitter,” said Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO and co-founder.
“Joining forces with Twitter gives us the opportunity to bring the benefits of that research to hundreds of millions of people around the world, and allows Magic Pony to contribute to better quality viewing experiences on Twitter,” commented Rob Bishop, Magic Pony CEO and co-founder.
Magic Pony’s team includes 11 PhDs and alumni of some of the top labs in the world with expertise across computer vision, machine learning, high-performance computing, and computational neuroscience.
Bishop will be based out of the micro-blogging site’s headquarters in San Francisco, and co-founder Zehan Wang and the other members will join Twitter’s London office.
The Magic Pony team in London will serve as the European base of the Cortex team and help recruit more top talent from the region.
Today’s acquisition builds on the micro-blogging site’s investment in machine learning, beginning with the acquisitions of Madbits in July 2014 and Whetlab in June 2015.
