The term ‘AI PC’ seems to be the term of 2024. It basically means that a computer is capable of implementing AI or using AI but the problem is the definition of that is extremely flimsy. AI, like any software or program, is reliant on processing power from a computer’s spec, be it locally or from a data centre. But now a ‘proper’ definition of what an AI PC is has emerged from processor leader Intel, and the answer is: it’s anything that has Intel’s latest CPUs.
Intel, gave this intel.. er, definition to The Register, with its senior director of technical marketing Robert Hallock, saying the term ‘AI PC’ is entirely reliant on anything packing a GPU capable of Intel’s ‘Vector Neural Network Instructions’ (VNNI) and the company’s software for neural video processing (DP4a).
What Intel is saying here is that an ‘AI PC’ is just a new PC. It’s a confirmation if I’ve ever heard one that this is just a tech buzzword. If you buy a machine in 2024 that has the latest generation of Intel CPUs, in particular ‘Core Ultra’ CPUs that make up the 14th generation of Core CPUs (and the first generation of the ‘Ultra’ suffix), congratulations! You have an AI PC.
“The reason we have not created a category for it like Centrino [Intel’s Wi-Fi enabled PC designation from 2003] is we believe this is simply what a PC will be like in four or five years time,” Hallock added to The Register.
Will you actually use it for locally-processed AI stuff, in particular stuff that you’re supposed non AI-PC wasn’t capable of? I don’t know, probably not. At least, not if you’re just a casual consumer who wants basic stuff from a computer. People seem perfectly fine using ChatGPT and Copilot via the web for stuff like generating recipes or getting quick answers for things, which don’t leverage local processing in any way beyond basic text and visual display.
“They [consumers] are unlikely to pay a premium for GenAI smartphones without the availability of any groundbreaking applications,” senior director analyst at Gartner Ranjit Atwal said in February, in reference to a report on AI hardware sales.
So there you have it, the term ‘AI PC’ is definitely, confirmed the tech buzzword for 2024.
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