by Stephen Nellis
Apple on Tuesday introduced a novel chip called M4 that it says will outclass PCs designed with artificial intelligence in mind – but it placed the novel chip in an iPad Pro model, not a laptop.
The move is unusual for Apple, which typically places its latest chips in its Mac lineup, where M3 chips began appearing last fall. But analysts told Reuters that Apple is likely eager to put its latest chips, which are more energy competent and have a larger portion devoted to handling AI tasks, into the hands of app developers ahead of its annual developer conference next month.
The iPhone maker’s latest outing comes as the Silicon Valley heavyweight follows in the footsteps of Substantial Tech rivals as they race to build artificial intelligence into their products at their companies and dominate emerging technologies.
Apple says the iPad Pro – its most exorbitant model – will have improved displays and will start at $1,000 for the 11-inch (27.9 cm) model and $1,300 for the 13-inch (33 cm) model.
continued below
It will feature an M4 chip with a larger “neural engine,” which is a part of the chip designed specifically for the calculations required by artificial intelligence functions such as text or image generation. Apple’s chips have featured a neural engine since 2017, but rivals like Intel have begun touting their competing technologies for PCs.
“The Neural Engine makes M4 an incredibly powerful chip for artificial intelligence,” Tim Millet, vice president of platform architecture at Apple, said during the presentation. “In fact, at this level of performance, the Neural Engine and M4 are more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today.”
Apple also introduced novel mid-priced iPad Air models, which will now be available with a larger 13-inch screen for $800, as well as an 11-inch screen that was previously available for $600. The models are equipped with the Apple M2 chip, which first appeared on the market in Apple MacBooks in 2022.
Apple often introduces novel iPads in May, when education customers are making purchasing decisions for the next academic year. However, in recent years, Apple has begun to transform its more exorbitant models into devices for innovative and business professionals with its iPad Pro models.
The exact artificial intelligence functions the novel chips will be able to implement may not be fully explained until Apple’s developer conference, which often shows off novel capabilities for Siri, its voice assistant, and other operating systems.
For now, many of the AI features – such as helping to zoom in on a user during a video call and slightly changing the appearance of their eyes to make it look like they’re looking directly at the camera – are unlikely to inspire a wave of improvements, according to some analysts.
“Is it really enough for people to look at them and buy them? Probably not,” said Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner. “It must be some amazing experience.”
Apple’s rivals Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google have delved into artificial intelligence, introducing chatbots that aim to act as virtual assistants for tasks such as writing emails or tapping out lines of computer code.
While shares of these companies have surged to record highs, Apple’s share has fallen 6% year to date on feeble iPhone demand and stiff competition in China, with investors waiting for Apple to show how it will operate artificial intelligence technology. intelligence.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said last week that the company is “very confident about our opportunities in generative AI” and plans to make more announcements later this year.
Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Original Strategies, said the improved iPads could be a way for Apple to bring novel chips to market ahead of next month’s developer conference, where it may reveal more about its plans to tackle the artificial intelligence problem.
This could take the form of automating common tasks to speed them up or allowing Siri, the company’s voice assistant, to delve deeper into applications to perform tasks on the user’s behalf.
The key question for Apple is how much it can improve its AI features while processing most of the information on the device itself, for privacy reasons.
“I always say that artificial intelligence is only as astute as the data it can get,” Milanesi said.
Most frequently read on devices
