AI is the biggest hyped term in tech, and it has been for the last few years. Whenever you hear about where to buy a new phone, AI has now made its way into laptops and desktop PCs as well.
Intel, which makes the best-selling chips that power PCs, is constantly talking about “AI PCs” by 2023. And now Microsoft has introduced its own version of an AI PC, the CoPilot+ PC concept.
Is it all marketing? Is there really anything new in these AI PCs? And should you consider an upgrade just because we’re apparently in the age of AI laptops and desktops? Here’s what you need to know. Let’s try to know about all this.
Elon Musk’s AI startup could soon be worth $18 billion
At a special event ahead of its annual Build conference for developers, Microsoft announced brand new AI PC hardware equipped with all kinds of AI tech. It can transform the workplace experience of keyboard jockeys from data entry clerk to CEO.
The new computers, which Microsoft calls “CoPilot+” PCs – built by manufacturing partners and Microsoft itself – and the new Windows systems to run on them, are almost perfect reinventions of the old Windows experience. That could be part of your next work laptop.
What is an AI PC?
The idea of an AI PC is a convenient marketing tool for companies that would love to upgrade your hardware. But there is some strong support behind this concept.
AI PCs have a processor called an NPU, which is a neural processing unit. This seems more like science fiction than reality. This is a chipset that is specifically optimized for jobs that require AI.
The same work can usually be done by your regular old laptop CPU processor, but it may be slower and consume more power while doing so. This is why technology is so important in laptop PCs as opposed to desktops. Efficiency matters even more when your battery is draining.
Many of the AI features revealed by Microsoft rely on a new generation of desktop and laptop PCs with specialized “neural processing units” (NPUs). These pieces of silicon are designed to execute the complex math that makes AI work, and some new Windows AI features – like recall – won’t work without them. Both Intel, which has partnered with Microsoft to provide processor chips inside PCs for years, and Microsoft have been pushing this notion of AI PCs for some time.
Now it actually appears that if your company relies on Windows PCs rather than Macs, and you’re willing to embrace the AI revolution, your next big IT purchase could be a bunch of AI PCs. Microsoft is labeling these machines “CoPilot+”, and has said it is working with manufacturing partners like Acer to build them.
