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rob_enderle
Contributor

Intel brings AI to the PC and could redefine the desktop

opinion
Sep 22, 20234 mins
Artificial IntelligenceComputers and PeripheralsGenerative AI

Artificial intelligence is going to rapidly and dramatically change what we can do with computers and other office technology. Just ask Intel.

person at laptop using generative ai chatbot by amperespy44 via shutterstock
Credit: amperespy44 / Shutterstock

Disclosure: Intel is a client of the author.

At Intel’s Innovation conference this past week, the company highlighted the next generation of Windows PCs, clearly anticipating Microsoft’s genAI Copilot tool, which can write documents for you, create presentations from comments, and automate much of what annoys everyone about Outlook. Intel offered up a number of interesting scenarios about this new class of hardware — due in December — that has the potential to transform work and entertainment.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Rich Uhlig, director of Intel Labs, had a lot to point to at the event.

AI and education (in China)

While there might be issues with this in the US, given the sensitivity here about educational content, Rich Uhlig highlighted a project in China that uses Intel’s new AI technology. It’s an AI-driven touchscreen display that has a camera and can capture the interaction between teachers and students. As AI-based tools learn what works and what doesn’t, it can help coach educators on best practices and build up the capability to work autonomously to tutor or mentor kids. As it is here in the US, teachers are spread thinly in China, so students often don’t get the personal attention they need for the best education.

Automation could create AI-driven mentors that not only help children one-on-one but can also help teachers become better at their jobs and more effective. This could also be useful in occupational training and even post-hire training for new employees by reducing the load on workers who would rather be doing their job instead of training someone else to do it.

This could have broad applications for training that don’t exist today.

Dealing with sound-challenged environments

Gelsinger, who is hearing impaired, he presented new AI-driven hearing aid technology that goes beyond hearing aids and can adapt, based on conditions. For instance, if you are in a Zoom meeting, it would pull audio from Zoom and block out ambient noise. If someone approached, the user could block the Zoom audio and switch to local sound — all the while automatically transcribing the meeting so the user doesn’t fall behind. It would also do real-time translation, which goes beyond useful in actually understanding what people are saying when you don’t speak their language.

A future capability that already exists in a product coming to market involves optimizing the sounds in a noisy environment. I’d find this useful because I have a really tough time hearing someone in an acoustically challenged venue. I used to work in construction, and this would have been a godsend by preventing some avoidable injuries.

AI and entertainment

When I travel, I like to watch videos and listen to music. Gelsinger demonstrated how AI tools could create unique content tailored to each individual user. For instance, if you like Taylor Swift’s sound but are tired of her lyrics about ex-boyfriends, AI could create a song that sounds like her but with lyrics on some other topic. (He also showed how this could also be done with images and eventually videos.)

I also read when I travel, and not only does this suggest that generative AI could draft a book or story that better fit my mood, but it could also create background music consistent with the book I’m reading.

These are just some of the innovations to bubble up at Intel this year. Intel, for instance, also introduced AI tools that could choose clothing online that both fit and better match your color and style. The company is on a surprisingly rapid cadence for this new technology to roll out by the end of this year. Assuming it  stays on track and hits its projected milestones, PCs are going to get a lot smarter. By the end of the decade, they’ll be doing much of the work for us.

End note: As I was writing this, I came across an AI-created image of “Mrs. Spock.” There are some things AI will create that we’ll want to unsee. That, too, is the nature of progress.

rob_enderle
Contributor

Rob Enderle is president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group, a forward looking emerging technology advisory firm. With more than 25 years’ experience in emerging technologies, he provides regional and global companies with guidance in how to better target customer needs with new and existing products; create new business opportunities; anticipate technology changes; select vendors and products; and identify best marketing strategies and tactics.

In addition to IDG, Rob currently writes for USA Herald, TechNewsWorld, IT Business Edge, TechSpective, TMCnet and TGdaily. Rob trained as a TV anchor and appears regularly on Compass Radio Networks, WOC, CNBC, NPR, and Fox Business.

Before founding the Enderle Group, Rob was the Senior Research Fellow for Forrester Research and the Giga Information Group. While there he worked for and with companies like Microsoft, HP, IBM, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, USAA, Texas Instruments, AMD, Intel, Credit Suisse First Boston, GM, Ford, and Siemens.

Before Giga, Rob was with Dataquest covering client/server software, where he became one of the most widely publicized technology analysts in the world and was an anchor for CNET. Before Dataquest, Rob worked in IBM’s executive resource program, where he managed or reviewed projects and people in Finance, Internal Audit, Competitive Analysis, Marketing, Security, and Planning.

Rob holds an AA in Merchandising, a BS in Business, and an MBA, and he sits on the advisory councils for a variety of technology companies.

Rob’s hobbies include sporting clays, PC modding, science fiction, home automation, and computer gaming.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of Rob Enderle and do not necessarily represent those of IDG Communications, Inc., its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.

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