I can’t imagine how Apple can convince and keep buyers on Apple products if the end-point on-device chip, like A18, A19, M4, M5 etc. do not have AI /AGI capabilities.
Exactly what makes a chip AI capable?
The label largely stems from a computer having a dedicated "neural processing unit", NPU. Basically a specialized execution unit design for 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit integer SIMD workloads that machine learning tools use.
There is now a big advertising push in the "PC" world for it because Intel has started putting these NPUs into their SoCs. That's why "AI PCs" are part of media cycle now.
Apple has had a NPU, they call it a neural processing engine (NPE), in their SoCs for about 5 to 6 years now. All Apple Silicon Macs would be considered an "AI PC" because they have an NPE in their chips. All iPhones and iPads for the past few years could also be considered AI PCs. Heck, even the 2024 Apple Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models could be considered AI PCs because the S9 SiP has a 4 core NPE in them.
Otherwise, all these machine learning algorithms would be running on the GPU, or even worse the CPU, which is slower, hotter, uses more power. By having the specialized execution units in the SoC chip, it makes running these workloads faster and more energy efficient.
Comments
There is now a big advertising push in the "PC" world for it because Intel has started putting these NPUs into their SoCs. That's why "AI PCs" are part of media cycle now.
Apple has had a NPU, they call it a neural processing engine (NPE), in their SoCs for about 5 to 6 years now. All Apple Silicon Macs would be considered an "AI PC" because they have an NPE in their chips. All iPhones and iPads for the past few years could also be considered AI PCs. Heck, even the 2024 Apple Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models could be considered AI PCs because the S9 SiP has a 4 core NPE in them.
Otherwise, all these machine learning algorithms would be running on the GPU, or even worse the CPU, which is slower, hotter, uses more power. By having the specialized execution units in the SoC chip, it makes running these workloads faster and more energy efficient.