Apple has acquired a UK-based start-up whose artificial-intelligence software helps computers and people speak to each other in a more natural dialogue, the Financial Times reports citing people familiar with the deal.

VocalIQ uses machine learning to build virtual assistants that try to recreate the type of talking computers that appear in science-fiction films such as Samantha in Her or Jarvis in Iron Man. The deal marks Apple’s third acquisition of a UK company this year.

Its technology could help Apple to improve Siri, its virtual assistant, as well as further the iPhone maker’s automotive ambitions.

In a blog earlier this year, VocalIQ described how a “conversational voice-dialog system” in a car’s navigation system could prevent drivers from becoming distracted by looking at screens. Its “self-learning” technology allows “real conversation between human and the internet of things”, VocalIQ wrote.

This would improve on virtual assistants such as Siri, Google Now, Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa, which rely on scripted interactions and can respond only to particular commands.