TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      How AI could transform financial services in emerging markets

      19 August 2022

      Standard Bank IT spending tops R10-billion in six months

      19 August 2022

      Blue Label expects robust full-year earnings growth

      19 August 2022

      Hungry Prosus to splurge up to R30.7-billion on iFood stake

      19 August 2022

      Sarb tells banks they should work with crypto exchanges

      18 August 2022
    • World

      15 September pegged as target date for ethereum’s big ‘Merge’

      19 August 2022

      Qualcomm gets serious about servers

      19 August 2022

      China blasts US over ‘discriminatory’ Chips Act

      18 August 2022

      Tencent reports first-ever sales decline

      17 August 2022

      Chip makers are flashing a big warning for the global economy

      17 August 2022
    • In-depth

      Are you a chronic procrastinator? Read this!

      18 August 2022

      African unicorn Flutterwave battles fires on multiple fronts

      11 August 2022

      The length of Earth’s days has been increasing – and no one knows why

      7 August 2022

      As Facebook fades, the Mad Men of advertising stage a comeback

      2 August 2022

      Crypto breaks the rules. That’s the point

      27 July 2022
    • Podcasts

      Qush on infosec: why prevention is always better than cure

      11 August 2022

      e4’s Adri Führi on encouraging more women into tech careers

      10 August 2022

      How South Africa can woo more women into tech

      4 August 2022

      Book and check-in via WhatsApp? FlySafair is on it

      28 July 2022

      Interview: Why Dell’s next-gen PowerEdge servers change the game

      28 July 2022
    • Opinion

      No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

      11 July 2022

      Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

      8 July 2022

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Africa Data Centres
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»In-depth»Why Apple is building an AI chip

    Why Apple is building an AI chip

    In-depth By David Glance31 May 2017
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Apple is reportedly working on a chip called the Apple Neural Engine, which would be dedicated to carrying out artificial intelligence (AI) processing on its mobile devices.

    The addition of this type of capability would catalyse the use of AI on mobile devices. Although it is already being used extensively to power digital assistants like Siri and Google Assistant, these technologies rely on computer servers to process data sent to them rather than the processing happening on the mobile device itself.

    Augmented reality and digital assistants are not the only applications of AI that will become important on mobile devices. Once the capability is made available to all mobile application developers, it will bring new types of capabilities to mobile devices.

    Health applications, for example, will be able to tell when body readings from sensors on the phone or associated wearable devices are abnormal and need acting on. But the uses are potentially limitless and will bring about a new phase in how we rely on applications and our mobile devices in everyday life. And they will work, even when the device is not connected to the Internet.

    Strictly speaking, a specific processor is not an essential requirement for using AI on a mobile phone. Chip maker Qualcomm, for example, has provided a software-based approach, called the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine, to allow developers using their chips to incorporate AI into their software. An example of this is a car that monitors the driver using a camera and warns when they are using their smartphone or driving erratically.

    The phone would be part of a self-directed ecosystem of intelligent and autonomous machines, including cars

    Specific AI hardware, however, greatly speeds up the process called “machine learning” and allows for more sophisticated types of AI to be used. Google’s AI hardware, called the Tensor Processing Unit, is 15 to 30 times faster than the fastest computer processors (CPUs) and graphic processors (GPUs) that power computers today. These TPUs were what gave Google’s DeepMind its ability to beat the world champions of the Chinese game of Go. These TPUs also have vastly improved Google’s automated language translation software, Google Translate.

    The inclusion of AI in mobile software is going to increase the potential usefulness of that software massively and through that, how much we come to depend on the mobile phone. Our state of health, for example, is really about how we are doing relative to how we normally feel. Changes in behaviour can signal changes in mental health, including conditions like dementia and Parkinson’s. They can also be precursors of illnesses such as diabetes as well as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Our phones could monitor patterns of activity and even how we walk. This ability would be based on the software learning our normal patterns and once having detected a change, decide what to do about it.

    AI will essentially be able to fill in and apply the understanding and knowledge that not everyone possesses

    The phone would be part of a self-directed ecosystem of intelligent and autonomous machines, including cars. Not only is the driving of autonomous cars completely dependent on AI to function, it is likely that people will eventually share the use of these cars when needed, rather than owning one themselves. AI will again be essential for managing how this sharing functions to manage the most efficient distribution of cars, directing which cars need to pick up which clients. To do this, the scheduling AI service will need to liaise with AI software on everyone’s phones to determine where and when they will be at a given location and where they need to get to.

     

    AI on a mobile device will also increasingly be used to keep the device protected, checking if applications and communications are secure or likely to be a threat. This technology is already being implemented in smart home appliances, but as software. The addition of special AI chips will allow them to be much faster and to do more. Researchers are also looking at analysing the way we move as a means of uniquely identifying the wearer of a device.

    AI will essentially be able to fill in and apply the understanding and knowledge that not everyone possesses. Even if they do, remembering to do something, even when it is in your own best interest, is sometimes hard.

    There is a counterargument to the benefits of increasing the intelligence of mobile devices, however. This is the fear that as we come to rely on devices to do things, we will lose the ability to maintain that skill and that this will eventually impact on a person’s overall cognitive ability, or at least on their ability to operate without the AI.The Conversation

    The successful outcome of having an AI assisting depends on the user following its advice, and this is something that people may not be that good at doing.

    • David Glance is director of the UWA Centre for Software Practice, University of Western Australia
    • This article was originally published on The Conversation
    Apple David Glance Google Qualcomm top
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleIs bitcoin a legitimate asset class?
    Next Article Local solar PV industry looks to self-regulate

    Related Posts

    Qualcomm gets serious about servers

    19 August 2022

    iPhone 14 launch date targeted for 7 September

    18 August 2022

    Are you a chronic procrastinator? Read this!

    18 August 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Does your contact centre have the CX factor?

    19 August 2022

    Entelek, A2pay to roll out 2 500 free Wi-Fi sites in South Africa

    18 August 2022

    Companies are drowning in data – but solutions are at hand

    18 August 2022
    Opinion

    No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

    11 July 2022

    Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

    8 July 2022

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.