Apple has bought U.S. machine-learning startup Turi in a deal that reportedly cost $200 million, the electronics giant confirmed on Monday. 
Turi specializes in enabling developers to imbue software applications with artificial intelligence, so the apps learn to think more the way people do. 
"Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," the company said in a statement when quizzed about the deal. 
The acquisition reflects a larger push by Apple into artificial intelligence and machine learning as it steps up its efforts to compete against the rival services of Microsoft's Cortana, Amazon's Alexa and Google Now. 
Apple's artificial intelligence software, Siri, allows users to search their machines or the Internet with voice commands.