Twitter just bought a machine learning startup called Magic Pony

The microblogging company assured to be expanding its capabilities in the machine-learning area by buying the technology for a $150 million deal, which includes retention bonuses for the staff, as reported by TechCrunch.

Magic Pony’s technology ranges across computer vision, machine learning, high-performance computing and computational neuroscience, he wrote.

Twitter’s acquisition of Magic Pony builds on other investments the firm has made in machine learning, beginning with the acquisitions of Madbits in July 2014 and Whetlab in June 2015, Dorsey said. He stated that the acquisition will help boost the company’s foothold in deep learning systems; combined with the world-class talent, users will be able to better understand what is happening around the world, and why it is significant.

Founded 18 months ago, Magic Pony had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Entrepreneur First. Magic Pony’s technology recognizes patterns in both high- and low-resolution images, and then clears a low-resolution image up by using knowledge of what certain features should look like. Other recent AI-related acquisitions: NY image search firm Madbits in 2014, and past year, Cambridge, Mass. -based object recognition start-up Whetlab.

To put it more simply, the company develops technologically advanced solutions to enhance images and video captured on mobile and also to create graphics in virtual and augmented reality applications.

Tech giants now believe that Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will usher in the next wave of innovation and create new market leaders.

One of Twitter‘s biggest bets over the last year and a half has been in live video, starting with its purchase of Periscope in 2015, which has now grown to over 200 million broadcasts, and over 110 years of live video watched every day, and with deals that include the right to stream National Football League games online. In other words, Twitter aims to apply machine learning to get more people to spend more time on the site.

We first learned about Magic Pony Technology when we saw them present a year ago at a Pitch@Palace, a tech event put on at St James’ Palace in London. But Dorsey still has a ways to go in turning Twitter into a destination for live video events, as opposed to just a home for the online conversations that follow them.

The stock price of Twitter climbed more than 2% to $16.46 per share at the time of this writing around 1:00 in the afternoon in NY.