Datakalab is a Paris outfit dabbling in some nifty artificial intelligence compression and computer vision tech. 9to5Mac’s been chirping about it, saying these Datakalab boffins are all about “low power, runtime efficient, and deep learning algorithms” that don’t need a data centre to think.

This whole “does not need a data centre” appears to be Apple’s coming mantra for AI which it will try to sell to its fanboys convincing them that it is better than the rest.

Datakalab has been bragging on LinkedIn about its “industry-leading compression” and how they can sling embedded computer vision into gadgets as quickly as a flash, without costing an arm and a leg, and bang on the money.

Before Apple swooped in, and the French company surrendered to Apple’s mighty chequebook, it had a cosy little team of 10 to 20.

Neither the Cupertino giant nor Datakalab has piped up about the deal, even though Challenges magazine reckons it’s been blabbed to the European Commission.

The word is Datakalab’s head honchos didn’t fancy joining the Apple cart, but a bunch of their minions were headhunted and hopped over, leaving the company with a stash of patents all about AI compression and vision tech and no one to do any work on them.