Google acquires AI image processing startup AIMatter

Google has acquired AIMatter, a startup that uses AI to help detect and process images on mobile devices. Belarus-based AIMatter confirmed the news in a short post on the company's website on Wednesday.

AIMatter is the startup behind Fabby, a mobile application which uses artificial intelligence to enhance selfies with a range of creative effects, such as tone adjustment, colors, masks, backgrounds, and makeup designs.

The app, though not very popular has been downloaded over two million times among iOS users, while the Android version, launched this March has snagged between 100,000 and 500,000 user downloads. Though terms of the deal weren't disclosed, TechCrunch that first reported the news says that Fabby will continue to run and most of AIMatter’s employees will come over to Google.

As of now, there's no clarity how the search engine company plans to use the tech but there surely are options galore. Well, there are chances we could see an enhanced version of Fabby or the tech gets integrated into Android camera software. The tech could also have some value in Google's VR/AR efforts such as where it is building machine learning platforms like TensorFlow for developers to build their own apps using machine learning.