The personal computer (PC) industry is heating up and ushering in a new sweet spot: it's the PC with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Major beneficiaries of this PC revolution, including Intel and Microsoft, are now actively promoting PCS equipped with AI cpus and AI software assistants, and gradually moving AI applications from the cloud to the PC space.

In other words, AI PCS embedded with dedicated chips can execute AI models locally, without relying on the cloud. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger believes that this will make AI services cheaper, faster and more secure than using cloud-centric data center services. "In the future, you're going to unleash that power for everyone, for every use case, for every location," he said at CES 2024 in Las Vegas earlier this year.

While competing with AI giant Nvidia in the server field, Intel clearly sees an opportunity to catch up in its own strength - "PC processors." Intel is now actively integrating its neural processor unit (NPU) into PC processors; NPU is a dedicated semiconductor designed to handle AI tasks.

Intel's Meteor Lake laptop CPU has an NPU built into it to support third-party AI software capabilities. AMD, its old rival in PC hardware, is also launching AI PC processors. Nvidia announced three new Gpus - RTX 4060 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and RTX 4080 Super - for AI-enabled laptops at an online event ahead of CES 2024.