As per a recent report, Apple is gearing up to venture even deeper into artificial intelligence with its upcoming M-series CPUs for Mac computers and iPads. Later this year, the chips—likely to be dubbed M4—should be released.
In spite of the fact that Apple has been integrating a “neural engine” into its chips for years now, Bloomberg said on Thursday that the company intends to “highlight the AI processing capabilities” of its chips and “how they’ll integrate with the next version of macOS.”
A request for comment from Apple representatives was not immediately answered.
It’s hardly shocking that Apple is emphasizing the AI technologies in their CPUs. Since the 2022 launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the tech industry has realigned around an AI-related boom in product sales, investments, and future innovations. It was one of the most successful product launches in history when the company saw a huge surge of interest that resulted in over 100 million users testing its app in only two months. Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and many more have responded by quickly integrating AI capabilities into their goods and services.
See also AI Atlas: Your Guide to Artificial Intelligence in the Modern Era.
Not to be outdone, semiconductor and gadget manufacturers have begun incorporating AI into their offerings as well. Talks on how their chips can power AI workloads on desktops, servers, tablets, and smartphones are becoming more frequent from Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD. Meanwhile, Nvidia, the brains behind several AI technologies, has increased the pace at which it is developing AI chips. The tech sector has thus gone into overdrive marketing every method their computers or gadgets can be linked to AI.
Millions of people have been investigating how these technologies can affect their daily lives and jobs in the interim. (For in-depth CNET evaluations of generative AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT, and others, as well as AI news, advice, and explainers, see our recently launched AI Atlas project.)
Apple is putting more of a focus on AI than just its CPUs. During its Worldwide Developers Conference, which begins on June 10, Apple is also allegedly planning a number of updates to its MacOS software for PCs and its iOS and iPadOS software powering iPhones and iPads. Rumor has claimed that the business will highlight new AI features then as well, despite the fact that it has been quiet about its plans.
According to Bloomberg, Apple plans to upgrade its laptops gradually, rather than updating all of them at once with M4 CPUs. Instead, after its anticipated start this autumn, the M4 deployment will take place over the course of the next year or so.