Having Siri on an iPhone or iPad just isn’t going to be enough and it looks like Apple is betting heavily on AI to power future devices. According to the latest report, the Cupertino tech giant is working on something that it is calling the Apple Neural Engine. While we might get to know more information about this chip possibly during the September 2017 keynote, it looks like this addition to the internals could be the driving force of improving AI functionality on future iOS devices.
Apple Engineers Are Putting in the Hours to Catch up Against the Likes of Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant – Apple Neural Engine Could Be the Key
With the latest report from Bloomberg suggesting Apple’s making a huge shift to AI, future iPhones and iPads could significantly be improved thanks to the development and incorporation of the Apple Neural Engine.
“Apple is working on a processor devoted specifically to AI-related tasks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The chip, known internally as the Apple Neural Engine, would improve the way the company’s devices handle tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence -- such as facial recognition and speech recognition, said the person, who requested anonymity discussing a product that hasn’t been made public. Apple declined to comment.”
Most critics have labeled Siri as being inferior to Alexa and Google Assistant but with this latest change, the Apple Neural Engine might also heavily improve the functionality of Apple’s own voice assistant. Keep in mind that Google Assistant has already been rolled out for iOS, and with most users finding Google’s offering more appealing to use, the company’s employees are definitely going to be putting in the man hours to make sure that what they are making will rise above the competition.
The AI chip is designed to make significant improvements to Apple’s hardware over time, and the company plans to eventually integrate the chip into many of its devices, including the iPhone and iPad, according to a person that is close to this information.
There is more information stating that Apple has tested prototypes of future iPhones with the chip, but it is unclear if it will be ready for the 2017 lineup of devices.
Would you like to see the Apple Neural Engine power the iPhone 8 and 10.5-inch iPad Pro? Tell us your thoughts down in the comments.
