Toronto: A new line of computers designed specifically to run artificial intelligence applications hit stores on Tuesday as tech companies aim to adopt ChatGPT-style AI more widely.
In May, Microsoft announced new AI-powered personal computers, or “AI PCs,” that will use the company’s software under the Copilot Plus brand.
The idea is to allow users to access AI capabilities on their devices without relying on the cloud, which consumes more energy, takes more time, and complicates the AI experience.
The computer includes shorter image editing, direct transcription, translation, and “encapsulation” – a neural processing unit (NPU) chip – that allows the computer to keep track of everything that happens on the device.
However, Microsoft pulled Recall at the last minute due to privacy concerns and said it would only be available as an experimental feature.
Currently, devices built by hardware manufacturers such as HP and ASUS only use the new Snapdragon X Elite and Plus processors made by California-based chip giant Qualcomm.
“We’re defining what laptops do for the end user,” Qualcomm senior vice president Durga Malladi told AFP at the Collision technology conference in Toronto.
“We believe this is the rebirth of computing.”
In early May, Microsoft estimated that more than 50 million AI computers will be sold in 12 months given the demand for the power of ChatGPT.
Such a result would give a significant boost to PC sales, which have been declining for two years since the halcyon days of the coronavirus pandemic, before returning to growth in the first quarter of 2024.
US retailer Best Buy said it has trained tens of thousands of employees to sell and support its new line of AI computers.
Some industry experts are more skeptical than the promise, predicting that the real benefits of AI laptop upgrades are not yet big and will take more time.
“AI’s evolutionary features are not revolutionary enough to disrupt traditional purchasing methods,” Forrester analysts said.
“Most data workers don’t have enough software in their day-to-day work to get the speed of Ai computing.
