Apple has recently acquired WaveOne, a startup that specialized in developing AI-driven algorithms for video compression. This purchase was announced by Bob Stankosh, WaveOne’s former head of sales and business development, on LinkedIn. Stankosh expressed gratitude for being part of the journey and for Apple recognizing the value of such technology.
WaveOne was founded in 2016 by Lubomir Bourdev and Oren Rippel. Bourdev was a founding member of Facebook AI Research and led the AML computer vision team of the social media giant. For his part, Rippel was a Harvard research fellow specializing in Machine Learning, particularly deep learning and Bayesian optimization.
What WaveOne sought to do was to replace the outdated methods of compressing and distributing video with modern AI and Machine Learning algorithms. Through tests, the AI-Native codec developed by WaveOne was shown to be up to 9.8 times more preferred than AV1, 9.2x times better than HEVC, and 4.6x more favored than VVC when users were asked to pick their preference at the same bitrate.
It is believed that Apple plans to make use of WaveOne’s technology for a variety of services, from FaceTime to Apple TV+. The company’s paper on Efficient Learned Flexible-Rate Video Coding can be found online for more in-depth information.
Given the quality of the AI-Native codec and the experts behind it, Apple has taken the opportunity to take advantage of this technology for multiple projects. It is a testament to the impressive efforts put forth by both founders and every individual involved in the success of WaveOne; a success that can now be shared with Apple.
