Apple’s push into generative AI this year seems more and more certain, especially after Economic Daily published a report on Thursday about Apple’s plans for its upcoming chips. The plans, according to ED (translated from Chinese), “will not only greatly strengthen the AI computing power of M3 and A17 processors, but also significantly increase the number of AI computing cores and performance of the new generation of M4 and A18 processors, and the carrying rate of AI applications in all product lines will be greatly improved.”
This likely means that Apple will be making enhancements to the Neural Engine, the section of Apple chips that handles machine learning. However, ED does not detail how the chips will “strengthen the AI computing power,” whether by increasing the core count, improving processing speed, introducing new core functions, a combination of all three, or some other means.
It’s also easy to see how an AI enhancement will happen in the M4 and A18 chips; they haven’t been released yet and it makes sense that Apple would implement it in these chips. An A18 Pro chip will likely be at the heart of the iPhone 16 Pro when it is released this fall. As for the M4, it may not appear until the end of this year when Apple updates the MacBook Pro and iMac.
Read more at Macworld.com