The first official AI PCs are just about to land but they're not what you're expecting

HardwareThe first official AI PCs are just about to land but they’re not what you’re expectingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Razer)

AI Laptops

AI, everywhere, all at once. The AI boom is utterly overwhelming and the PC, inevitably, is not immune. About a month from now, you’ll be able to buy a machine that officially qualifies as an “AI” PC, according to no lesser an authority than Microsoft. But you might be surprised what’s powering it.

Of course, the very question ofwhat qualifies as “AI” is tricky enough. When do a few clever algorithms and a pattern-spotting routine or two actually become artificial intelligence in a meaningful sense?

Right now, there’s actually debate over the possibility that the latest chatbots might be sentient. Personally, I don’t think text prediction amounts to actual intelligence, much less sentience. Large language models aremeantto do a convincing job of predicting text. And they do just that, which is not a cause to impute mystical higher functionality emerging out of nothing.

That may happen, eventually. In the meantime, we have the term “AI” plastered all over everything. Later this year, that will include the PC. Microsoft is obviously one of the most important players in both AI and PC tech. So however arbitrary it is, what Microsoft decides should make for an AI PC will become something of a de facto standard.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has decided that an AI PC needs to be running its Copilot AI assistant. Somewhat fatuously, an AI PC according to Microsoft will also need to have a physical Copilot button on the keyboard. Perhaps a sticker over the right-hand alt key and a quick remap will do for that bit.

AMD’s Phoenix APU was actually the first with an AI-accelerating NPU, but it doesn’t qualify for Microsoft’s new definition.(Image credit: AMD)

AMD Phoenix

TOPS, of course, stands for Trillion Operations Per Second. Now it’s not clear exactly where that figure of 45 TOPS comes from or why Microsoft chose it. But you can be pretty confident it wasn’t arrived at without consultation with the likes of Intel and AMD.

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As for AMD, itsHawk Point APUhas a slightly more powerful NPU at 16 TOPS. But that’s still well short of what’s required to qualify as an AI PC. And wouldn’t you know it, AMD says its upcoming Strix Point chip for laptops will have three times the NPU performance of Hawk Point, putting it just over that 45 TOPS target. What a coincidence.

It was actually AMD that was first to market with a PC chip with an NPU. The Phoenix APU as seen in all those handheld gaming machines and lots of laptops had essentially the same NPU as Hawk Point.

Your next machine(Image credit: Future)Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines.Best gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming.

Your next machine

(Image credit: Future)Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines.Best gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming.

(Image credit: Future)

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Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines.Best gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming.

Will it be seen in hindsight in the turning point for the PC from x86 to Arm? Possibly. In the meantime, we’re left to ponder what all those TOPS will do aside from hide the mess on your bedroom floor in Zoom meetings andgenerate mildly disturbing cartoon meme imageslocally as opposed to up in the cloud. But whatever we end up doing with our brave new AI PC overlords, it’s remarkable that it will be Arm-powered PCs making the early running in PR terms if nothing else.

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