"AI" Computers / Laptops / Phones - Does the Emperor Not Have Clothes?
Posted by wivaca@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 40 comments
I use ChatGPT, CoPilot and several other LLM tools. They're almost inescapable in browsers, apps, and websites now and run on hardware I've had for 5 years.
Everywhere I go, I'm seeing laptop and phone ads and displays pushing "AI" models. In my decades of IT and sysadmin, I've seen software-based "features" used to sell hardware before, but this one seems to be two letters attached to the box of the same hardware we had before.
That being said, I haven't actually used one of these AI laptops. What is the killer feature that an AI laptop or phone has that I can't do on a laptop or phone I already have? Is it just a keybind to launch it? Is it even that?
frac6969@reddit
My laptop with NPU has a killer feature that makes me appear to be looking at the camera and paying attention even when I’m not.
Useful for being in a Teams meeting where I’m actually looking down and browsing Reddit on my phone.
Lower_Fan@reddit
It's funny all of the best NPU features are things phones have had for years now but they weren't exactly advertised as AI but machine learning.
High quality computational photography
Faster and better camera filters
Speech to text and text to speech
Local Ocr
Local translator
Local Autocorrector
Local objects, animals and faces recognition
Man-e-questions@reddit
Yeah thats how most buzzwords in IT work though. Like “cloud” before that buzzword it was just hosted versions of whatever. Now AI is the big buzzword.
jeramyfromthefuture@reddit
AI is the marketing , machine learning is the technology.
shogun-named-marcus@reddit
You want to share the model with the rest of the class?
frac6969@reddit
My laptop is a ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 with an Intel 125U. The features are actually built into Windows now but has prereqs. The AI blur is pretty nice too but I never got used to using background blurring since it used to suck.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ai/studio-effects/
phalangepatella@reddit
Is this for real?I hope this is for real.
ThatBCHGuy@reddit
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/jan-2023-nvidia-broadcast-update/
phalangepatella@reddit
Holy shit. So I can script my job away, and falls out in meetings?
hihcadore@reddit
I just need a chair with a head holding headrest so I can nap. Can I nap with my mouth closed is the real question. And can AI shut my nap induced open mouth?
jmbpiano@reddit
Test Proctors Hate This One Simple Trick!
stoopwafflestomper@reddit
Holy crap. I never needed something so bad. My adhd brain thanks you.
SofterBones@reddit
Finally a useful application for all of this AI nonsense
jeramyfromthefuture@reddit
AI is just marketing , the chatgpt got natural language model does a lot of heavy lifting in the world of "AI" currently.
marklein@reddit
My phone has an "AI" NPU to replace the normal assistant and it's worthless. Couldn't do normal assistant things so I went back to the original assistant that they've been using for years. It chats well though, in case I can't find any actual friends to text with.
OptimalCynic@reddit
Pixel 9? I've got the same problem. Can't even switch on my porch light from the phone any more, I have to go into an app to do it.
marklein@reddit
You guessed it. Great phone though, just the AI isn't I enough.
OptimalCynic@reddit
It boggles the mind that with all the resources they've put into Gemini, they couldn't even port the basic Assistant features over.
IF command IS LIKE something from Google Home PASS COMMAND TO old assistant
Taboc741@reddit
At Ignite Intel is showing off a feature driven by McAfee(yuck) that uses the NPU to identify deep fakes. Flagging both audio and video feeds from a browser. That's pretty cool.
LOLdragon89@reddit
That … actually sounds like a legitimately cool feature. Or hell, if it could automatically flag content known to be misinformation or generated by AI, that would be nice to have.
Taboc741@reddit
Agreed, the 1st non gimmick I'd seen.
OptimalCynic@reddit
Full buzzword compliance
BryanP1968@reddit
Ugh. Checks countdown clock to when I can draw my pension after 35 years in IT. Crud. Still 3 years and 10 months.
daishi55@reddit
Specialized AI hardware absolutely exists, and consumer devices are absolutely shopping with it lately. You could’ve determined this in 10 seconds on Google.
WendoNZ@reddit
AI - the new blockchain
ImCaffeinated_Chris@reddit
I'll believe in AI fully when the NFL let's AI pick the ENTIRE draft!
imnotaero@reddit
If everybody comes to believe in AI fully, this constraint will make you the last possible person to do so.
Most of these jokers can't even figure out to go for 2 when down eight with one possession remaining. No way they'll see benefit in any decision coming to them via a nerd's algorithm.
aes_gcm@reddit
Companies with "AI" in them are receiving tons of investment. There's a huge drive to push it forward even without a killer feature.
Bleglord@reddit
Nothing really yet.
Recall has potential to be powerful but is by default a clusterfuck nightmare for privacy and security
Future agentic abilities with OS level control will be amazing, but likely a long ways out
Otherwise it’s faster at loading the web hook to ChatGPT/copilot
Cley_Faye@reddit
Only if you want to.
Yeah, a handful of people are worried about sending absolutely everything they do and own to third party service that are mortally bound by "agreement to not do bad"
Modern GPU works well enough to run acceptable models. The biggest hurdle is video memory, but between manufacturer pushing lower level GPU with more memory, and some architecture change that may or may not be coming to have unified memory everywhere, having dedicated "AI" hardware is kinda moot for most people, as its just the usual hardware we've had for a while with, maybe, more memory attached to it.
Part of the idea of having hardware able to run decent models is to spread the resource cost of running these models, and increase privacy to some level. I have no doubt that some providers would happily run things on your local hardware and copy results to their "cloud solution" for convenience, but if anyone accepts that, that's on them.
But yeah, I have a "non AI" computer at home, and it can do document search, chatbot, text generation, almost real-time image generation, and all that jazz , locally. It's just missing the little sticker.
MarvinfromHell@reddit
"AI" is just a sophisticated ad in my opinion.
DasGanon@reddit
And like a lot of advertising, a lot of times it's backfiring too. (Which maybe part of the point of modern advertising, "hey even if they're pissed off they're still talking about it!)
SoonerMedic72@reddit
I have been bombarded with AI ads for writing emails. I write like 15-20 emails a day max. And most are simple "Sounds good, do it" type emails. Why the hell would I need help with that? 😂
Enlefo@reddit
AI being jammed into things that make no sense is what happens when's the marketing team had no opposition. It's annoying and useless and a huge waste of time. I really hope that marketing morons and crypto bros get fired for their lack of results soon so we can end the madness.
AdmRL_@reddit
It isn't strictly just marketing nonsense, an AI device will have a VPU and/or NPU (Vision and Neural Processing Unit) which are separate chips from your GPU and CPU specifically for ML & AI workloads. They'll also often have tailored drivers at both kernel and OS levels that are better suited for AI & ML stuff.
A year or two from now the question "What's the point of them?" might be easier to answer because if there's devices in circulation then services can be made that depend on them. But right now they're very much specialised or "nice to have" hardware rather than being anything game changing or "must have" because most AI services currently either don't use them at all due to cloud, or they're optionally used.
That said, I will say the marketing approach has been very bizarre. You'd think it'd be more along the lines of TPM chips where they were kind of silently introduced, then only became a marketable point when Windows 11 started demanding them. Instead they've oversold the features before there's much to do with them and made what is interesting tech look like a gimmick.
KittensInc@reddit
It is almost entirely bullshit.
Those NPUs aren't doing anything you couldn't do just as well (or even better) on a regular CPU or GPU. It's just basic matrix multiplication after all, and nobody is willing to invest enough silicon budget to make those NPUs powerful enough to run anything beyond a trivial model.
In theory dedicated NPUs are slightly more efficient - but is anyone really running AI apps often enough that it is going to meaningfully impact battery life? Sure, it's important for companies like ChatGPT running massive models in the cloud, but a regular desktop/laptop/smartphone user? No way, those NPUs are just there to sell more hardware.
So yeah, mostly a fancy keybind to launch ChatGPT & friends. Companies are desperately trying to jump on the AI hype train, which is why we're now seeing things like AI mice. It's not entirely a scam if it includes an actual NPU, but it's nowhere near a killer feature either.
MeatPiston@reddit
Yeah 99.999% of “npu” units go unused because there are zero apis or software support.
It’s like the start if pc 3d acceleration where every chip was a bespoke implementation and games were written for individual gpus.
no_regerts_bob@reddit
"AI ready" computers and phones typically have specialized hardware and software designed to accelerate AI tasks.^(1) Here's a breakdown of the key differences:
Hardware:
Software:
Benefits of AI-ready Devices:
Examples:
In summary:
An "AI ready" label suggests a device is equipped to handle AI workloads more effectively than a standard device.^(14) This can be due to specialized hardware like NPUs, optimized software, or a combination of both.^(15) These features lead to faster processing, enhanced capabilities, and improved efficiency for AI tasks.^(16)
Valdaraak@reddit
Get that GPT shit out of here.
no_regerts_bob@reddit
I find it hilarious and have no regerts