- Snap has acquired AI Factory for a reported $166 million. These are the details about the deal.
Snap has bought AI Factory, which is a company that is developing image and video recognition tools. And Snap is going to use AI Factory’s technology to power Snapchat’s Cameos feature where users can use a selfie to create deep fake-style videos.
Snap’s Cameos launched in mid-December. And with that feature, Snapchat users can insert their faces in animations like flying hotdogs, a talking cat, etc. It seems likely that the acquisition will be used for advancing Snap’s augmented reality tech in products like the Spectacles eyeglasses.
“Looking out over the long term, the next seven to 10 years, we will work toward realizing our vision of computing overlaid on the world through wearable augmented reality,” said Snap CEO Evan Spiegel in the company earnings call back in October.
As part of the deal, Snap paid a reported $166 million to buy AI Factory. AI Factory is headquartered in San Francisco and the company also has offices in Ukraine.
AI Factory was launched by CEO Victor Shaburov. Shaburov previously launched a facial recognition company called Looksery. Looksery was acquired by Snap in 2015.
With the Looksery technology, Snap built its animated selfie Lenses feature that year. And Shaburov worked as Snap’s director of engineering for three years following the acquisition. In 2018, Shaburov launched AI Factory.
Snap’s Cameos feature is within the Snapchat Chat menu next to Stickers. Currently, Snap has around 150 Cameos features.
