“AI PC” hits the market, AI goes mainstream

A new series of PCs built specifically to run artificial intelligence programs hit store shelves on Tuesday, as tech companies push for wider adoption of ChatGPT-style AI.

In May, Microsoft unveiled a new AI-powered personal computer that uses the company's software, branded Copilot Plus.

The idea is to give users access to AI capabilities on their devices without relying on the cloud, which takes more energy, time, and makes the AI ​​experience clunky.

This PC comes equipped with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) chip that enables crisp photo editing, live transcription, translation, and recall (a feature that lets a computer keep track of everything that's going on on your device).

However, Microsoft removed the recall feature at the last minute due to privacy concerns, and announced that it would only be available as a test feature.

For now, devices made by hardware manufacturers such as HP and ASUS run exclusively on a new series of processors made by California-based semiconductor giant Qualcomm, called the Snapdragon X Elite and Plus.

“We're redefining what a laptop actually does for the end user,” Qualcomm senior vice president Durga Malladi told AFP at the Collision technology conference in Toronto.

“We believe this is the resurgence of PC.”

When it was announced in May, Microsoft predicted that more than 50 million “AI PCs” would be sold within 12 months, given the demand for ChatGPT's features.

Best Buy, a major U.S. retailer, said it has trained tens of thousands of staff to sell and service new PCs.

Some industry experts are more cautious, predicting that the real benefits of upgrading to an AI laptop are not yet convincing enough and more time is needed.

“AI's evolving capabilities are not revolutionary enough to disrupt traditional buying patterns,” the Forrester analysts said.

“For most information workers, there are not enough groundbreaking applications in their daily work to spur rapid adoption of AI PCs.”

Microsoft has been actively rolling out its generative AI products since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, with new AI capabilities becoming available across products such as Teams, Outlook, and Windows.

Feeling the pressure, Google quickly followed suit, and Apple joined in earlier this month, announcing that it would roll out its own on-device AI features to its premium iPhones within the next few months to a year.

The latest MacBooks and iPads already have the ability to perform powerful AI functions, but Apple has been slow to highlight those capabilities.

“It seems like they missed an opportunity to call it an AI PC,” Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, recently joked about the latest generation of MacBooks.

© 2024 AFP