​New York, Feb 21 (IANS) US tech giant Apple is reportedly working on Siri-powered speaker just like Amazon Echo -- an artificial intelligence (AI)-based speaker that can be controlled by voice.

"The future goal of the technology is to utilise Siri as an 'omnipresent AI assistant across devices' rather than have a central hub," appleinsider.com reported on Tuesday.

The Siri-controlled device would likely carry out the same tasks that the personal digital assistant already does on iPhones and iPads.

Earlier this week, Apple acquired Israel-based start-up "RealFace" that develops deep learning-based face authentication technology.

Set up in 2014 by Adi Eckhouse Barzilai and Aviv Mader, RealFace has developed a facial recognition software that offers users a smart biometric login, aiming to make passwords redundant when accessing mobile devices or PCs, the Times of Israel reported.