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Apple ready with AI later in the year

Translate from : Apple klar med AI senere på året

Apple is known for being one step ahead of technology trends, but when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), the company has taken a more reserved approach. But it seems this is about to change. According to a recent report by Taiwan-based Economic Daily News, Apple has confirmed that it will equip its next-generation chipsets with a powerful Neural Engine to deliver advanced AI capabilities.

The report claims that Apple has asked TSMC to invest in an improved version of the 3nm chipset. The upcoming M4 and A18 chipsets will have a significant increase in data processing power. In order to deliver generative AI functions, Apple plans to increase the number of built-in AI computing cores in its processors. It is therefore clear that this will require more intensive research and development, as well as a larger investment.

"Apple has spotted the biggest trend in AI. This year, they will not only significantly strengthen the AI computing power of the M3 and A17 processors, but they will also significantly increase the number and performance of the new generations of M4 and A18 processors ,” says a source close to the industry. Until now, Apple has been continuously refining the Neural Engine on its A-series chips, although the company has not paid much attention to AI features.

For example, Apple has claimed that the A17 Pro chipset in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max has twice as powerful a Neural Engine as last year's A16 Pro in the iPhone 14 Pro models. However, it is worth noting that the number of cores has remained the same since the iPhone 12. This year we can expect to see a Neural Engine with more than 16 cores. On a recently concluded earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that generative AI features will arrive later this year. This isn't the first time we've heard about Apple's upcoming push into AI.

Well-known Apple analysts Ming-Chi Kuo and Mark Gurman have already reported that Apple is planning a major overhaul in iOS 18. The next iOS iteration will bring a plethora of AI features to Siri, Messaging, and more. Last October, Apple launched its debut LLM model called Ferret in collaboration with Columbia University. The open-source LLM model is considered to be more effective than GPT-4 for understanding and describing small image regions. We can expect to see AI features powered by Ferret in upcoming iPhones and Macs. While an improved Neural Engine could bring powerful AI features, it could also mean that some features might be limited to the iPhone 16 series and upcoming Macs.