With the release of the new iPad Pro, Apple is poised to accelerate its transition towards artificial intelligence (AI) hardware. With the intention of releasing the M4 chip later this year, the company is expediting its upgrades to computer processors. With its new neural engine, this chip should enable more sophisticated AI capabilities.

According to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, the M4 chip will not only be found in Mac computers but will also be included in the upcoming iPad Pro. It appears that Apple is responding to the recent AI boom in the tech industry by positioning the iPad Pro as its first truly AI-powered device.

The new iPad Pro will be unveiled by Apple ahead of its June Worldwide Developers Conference, which will free it up to reveal its AI chip strategy. The AI apps and services that will be a part of iPadOS 18, which is anticipated later this year, are also anticipated to be utilized by the M4 chip and the new iPad Pros.

May 7 at 7:30 PM IST is when the next Let Loose event is scheduled to take place. Live streaming of the event will be available on Apple.com and the Apple TV app.

AI is also expected to play a major role in Apple’s A18 chip design for the iPhone 16. It is important to acknowledge that these recent products are not solely designed and developed with artificial intelligence in mind, and this may be a tactic employed for marketing purposes. According to reports, more sophisticated gear is on the way. Apple reportedly developed a home robot and a tablet iPad that could be controlled by a robotic arm.

A new smartphone from Google is anticipated to be unveiled during its May 14–15 I/O conference. The forthcoming device, dubbed Pixel 8a, will be a more subdued version of the Pixel 8. Despite being frequently spotted online, the smartphone has not yet received any official announcements from the company. A promotional video that was leaked is showcasing the AI features of the Pixel 8a, just weeks before its much-anticipated release. Furthermore, internet leaks have disclosed software support and special features.

Tipster Steve Hemmerstoffer obtained a promotional video for the Pixel 8a through MySmartPrice. The forthcoming smartphone is anticipated to include certain Pixel-only features, some of which are demonstrated in the video. As per the video, the Pixel 8a will support Google’s Best Take feature, which substitutes faces from multiple group photos or burst photos to “replace” faces that have their eyes closed or display undesirable expressions.

There will be support for Circle to Search on the Pixel 8a, a feature that is presently present on some Pixel and Samsung Galaxy smartphones. Additionally, the leaked video implies that the smartphone will come equipped with Google’s Audio Magic Eraser, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for eliminating unwanted background noise from recorded videos. In addition, as shown in the video, the Pixel 8a will support live translation during voice calls.

The phone will have “seven years of security updates” and the Tensor G3 chip, according to the leaked teasers. It’s unclear, though, if the phone will get the same amount of Android OS updates as the more expensive Pixel 8 series phones that have the same processor. In the days preceding its planned May 14 launch, the company is anticipated to disclose additional information about the device.

All of the major tech companies, with the exception of Apple, have made their generative AI models available for use in commercial settings. The business is, nevertheless, actively engaged in that area. Wednesday saw the release of Open-source Efficient Language Models (OpenELM), a collection of four incredibly compact language models—the Hugging Face model library—by its researchers. According to the company, OpenELM works incredibly well for text-related tasks like composing emails. The models are now ready for development and the company has maintained them as open source.

In comparison to models from other tech giants like Microsoft and Google, the model is extremely small, as previously mentioned. 270 million, 450 million, 1.1 billion, and 3 billion parameters are present in Apple’s latest models. On the other hand, Google’s Gemma model has 2 billion parameters, whereas Microsoft’s Phi-3 model has 3.8 billion. Minimal versions are compatible with phones and laptops and require less power to operate.

Apple CEO Tim Cook made a hint in February about the impending release of generative AI features on Apple products. He said that Apple has been working on this project for a long time. About the details of the AI features, there is, however, no more information available.

Apple, meanwhile, has declared that it will hold a press conference to introduce a few new items this month. Media invites to the “special Apple Event” on May 7 at 7 AM PT (7:30 PM IST) have already begun to arrive from the company. The invite’s image, which shows an Apple Pencil, suggests that the event will primarily focus on iPads.

It seems that Apple will host the event entirely online, following in the footsteps of October’s “Scary Fast” event. It is implied in every invitation that Apple has sent out that viewers will be able to watch the event online. Invitations for a live event have not yet been distributed.
Apple has released other AI models before this one. The business previously released the MGIE image editing model, which enables users to edit photos using prompts.