Virtually every aspect of technology has been affected, and potentially improved, by artificial intelligence (AI). PCs are no exception. While the meaning of “AI PC” is still evolving, it generally refers to a computer specifically designed to excel at AI-powered tasks. These beefed-up computers typically feature: 

High-end CPUs and GPUs to handle the demanding computational requirements of AI applications such as AI assistants that automate tasks, schedule meetings, answer emails, and provide personalized recommendations and data analysis and visualization.

Dedicated AI accelerators like Neural Processing Units (NPUs). These specialized chips are optimized for AI tasks such as machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing. 

Pre-installed AI-powered software such as AI assistants (like Microsoft Copilot), creative tools, and AI-enhanced productivity applications. 

Will AI PCs play a big role in 2025 and beyond?

As AI becomes more integrated into daily use, the demand for powerful computers capable of handling AI workloads will grow and provide new levels of productivity by automating tasks, generating creative content, and providing intelligent assistance.  AI PCs are also designed to improve the user experience with AI-powered features like voice assistants, intelligent search, and personalized recommendations to enhance the overall user experience.

Key players in the AI PC market

Intel is building CPUs with built-in AI acceleration capabilities.  

AMD is heavily investing in AI-powered processors with its Ryzen AI processors designed for AI-driven experiences. 

Nvidia, arguably the leader in GPU technology,  continues to drive AI performance with its powerful processors. 

And Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors, which allow for on-device AI processing. are increasingly integrated into Windows PCs.

Related AI PC coverage

2025: The year of the AI PC

October 24, 2024: Forrester has tagged 2025 “the Year of the AI PC” — and if the number of recent product announcements is any indication, that’s likely to be the case. Gartner Research projects PC shipments will grow by 1.6% in 2024 and by 7.7% in 2025. The biggest growth driver will be due, not the arrival of not AI PCs, but to the need by many companies and users to refresh their computers and move toward Windows 11.

How soon will AI PCs replace traditional PCs in the enterprise?

Sept. 25, 2024: There’s much anticipation among enterprises and consumers alike for AI PCs, However, as with any new technology, it’s unclear when AI PCs will finally have their moment. Gartner forecasts that 43 million AI PCs will be shipped in 2024. IDC predicts even more — 57 million units — will be shipped in 2024. And by 2028, AI PCs will represent 92% of all PC shipments worldwide.

What does Qualcomm’s interest in buying Intel’s chip design business mean for the future of PCs?

Sept. 11, 2024: Qualcomm, Intel, AMD, and Apple have been in a fierce battle for domination of the chip market for AI PCs, which are touted as the future of computing. Further ramping up competition in this fiery landscape, Qualcomm has reportedly explored buying portions of Intel’s design business, most notably client PC design, as Intel looks to spin off units ahead of an upcoming board meeting, anonymous sources told Reuters.

Copilot+ AI PCs are finally here. You don’t want one — yet

July 9, 2024: The AI hype keeps on coming. The latest news is the arrival of an entirely new line of Windows computers, Copilot+ PCs, which are specifically designed with AI in mind. Microsoft claims they’ll dramatically speed up AI, offer new features unavailable to other PCs, and deliver improved battery life. The new machines point the way to the future of Windows and of AI.

Microsoft’s Copilot+ AI PCs: Still a privacy disaster waiting to happen

June 12, 2024: Many security pros say Microsoft is opening a Pandora’s Box with its AI-powered Copilot+ Windows PCs. Microsoft argues those new PCs, available as of June 18, will make it easy for users to find files and remember things you’ve done on your computer using the new Recall feature, which takes screenshots, stores them in a database, and uses AI to help you find and use whatever you want. Despite warnings by security pros, Microsoft claims rock-solid security is baked directly into the new feature.

Review: The M4 iPad Pro — an amazing AI PC

May 17, 2024: The M4 iPad Pro is designed to provide the best possible performance thanks to the M4 chip inside. Apple suggests it needed to use this processor because it wanted to make the iPad Pro thin and to drive the amazing display. The move to M4 also means you get a huge leap in processor performance (1.5x faster than the last model) and graphics (4x faster rendering). Deploying this chip means the iPad Pro with M4 could become the world’s ultimate AI-driven tablet.

Enterprises want AI PCs, just not yet

April 23, 2024: While the employee benefits of using an AI PC are intriguing, they may not be enough to convince IT buyers to go all in just yet. Despite the enthusiasm generated  by advanced AI-driven functionalities, enterprises are expected to adopt a more measured approach over the next year, according to Forrester.

Microsoft is holding back the ‘AI PC’ revolution

March 13, 2024: The PC industry has a big problem. And it’s not hardware makers’ fault — it’s Microsoft’s responsibility. The hardware is here: Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and PC makers have delivered on their end. Now, everyone is waiting for Microsoft to catch up and make Windows truly shine on these AI PCs. Can the company deliver something compelling in time?

Dell ramps up ‘AI PC’ plans with Latitude and Precision refresh

Feb. 27, 2024: Dell unveiled a range of new laptops and PCs featuring neural processing units (NPUs) designed to run AI workloads on-device for improved video call quality and better laptop battery life.  Dell is one of several hardware vendors looking to benefit from growing interest in AI PCs.

Before you buy a Windows 11 AI PC, read this

Jan. 17, 2024: AI PCs were everywhere at CES 2024, and companies like Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm are all touting how great their hardware is at running AI tasks.  But since these “AI PCs are already on shelves and you can buy them before CES 2024, we need to cut through the hype and focus on what you’re getting for your money. They might one day deliver a lot of cool features — just not yet.”

Source:: Computer World

The reintroduction of neutrality rules for network providers is looking increasingly unlikely, at least for the next five years, after a US appeals court blocked efforts by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reinstate them.

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit court upheld its earlier stay on the FCC’s May 2024 Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet Order, effectively pausing the policy’s return.

The net neutrality rules require that providers of telecommunications services treat all traffic equally, but give providers of information services more freedom to filter or prioritize what they transmit. The FCC’s view on whether internet service providers (ISPs) provide telecommunications or information services has flip-flopped over the years.

Originally, the FCC classified ISPs as information services, exempt from the most stringent rules, but under the Obama administration it shifted position to treat them as telecommunications services. During President Trump’s first term of office his appointee as FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, reversed that shift — only for President Biden’s appointee, Jessica Rosenworcel, to attempt to bring ISPs once again under the net neutrality provisions.

That move foundered on January 2 with the appeals court’s ruling.

“We hold that Broadband Internet Service Providers offer only an ‘information service’ […], and therefore, the FCC lacks the statutory authority to impose its desired net-neutrality policies through the ‘telecommunications service’ provision of the Communications Act,” the court order read. “Nor does the Act permit the FCC to classify mobile broadband — a subset of broadband Internet services — as a ‘commercial mobile service’ […] and then similarly impose net-neutrality restrictions on those services,” the order stated. “We therefore grant the petitions for review and set aside the FCC’s Safeguarding Order.”

The appeals court based its argument, in part, on the ending of the so-called Chevron deference principle. This principle, which once required courts to defer to agency interpretations of ambiguous laws, was ended by a US Supreme Court ruling in June 2024, and has widespread regulatory consequences for IT departments.

With Rosenworcel’s term of office drawing to a close, it seems unlikely that the FCC will continue to pursue the reinstatement of net neutrality rules for ISPs. Trump’s pick as her replacement, Brendan Carr, favors market-led innovation over federal oversight.

Implications for enterprises

With net neutrality off the table for now, enterprises face an unregulated internet landscape that could favor large ISPs. ISPs can legally prioritize or throttle specific traffic, forcing businesses to pay premiums for reliable, high-speed access to cloud services, SaaS applications, or online collaboration tools. Without rules preventing practices like throttling or prioritizing traffic, companies reliant on stable, fast internet connections may face increased operational costs.

The absence of net neutrality is particularly concerning for smaller businesses. These businesses may struggle to compete if ISPs offer premium services to larger firms at higher prices. The lack of affordable, equitable access also risks disrupting digital transformation plans across industries.

For enterprises, the Sixth Circuit’s ruling is a clarion call to adapt to an increasingly market-driven internet landscape. It underscores the growing importance of proactively securing reliable and cost-effective internet services, as policy uncertainty looms over digital commerce and operations.

A longer timeline for reinstatement

The court’s ruling suggests net neutrality rules return will remain stalled for at least the duration of the Trump administration. As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, his administration is expected to maintain the deregulatory trajectory set under the Biden administration. Trump has aligned with Carr’s market-driven vision, opposing federal oversight of ISP practices.

Analysts predict that with Trump’s re-election priorities, policies like the suspended FCC ruling will take a backseat to broader economic goals. The absence of net neutrality for another five years is all but assured.

Broader implications: a geopolitical lens

The absence of net neutrality also carries global implications. The US decision sets a precedent for other nations grappling with the balance between regulatory oversight and market freedom. In regions where state-controlled internet infrastructure dominates, the delay in net neutrality restoration in the US may limit policy inspiration for protecting smaller stakeholders in the internet economy.

This context places additional pressure on US enterprises that compete globally. Their ability to innovate, streamline operations, and scale may be hampered without equitable internet access.

Source:: Computer World

By Nick Mokey CES 2025 will bring our first glimpse at the wall-devouring TVs of our future, a head-spinning array of AI-powered gadgets, and yes, an aircraft carrier van with a drone that launches out of its back.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Hisan Kidwai WWE 2K24 is the most popular wrestling game, where players play as their favorite superstars and…
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By Deepti Pathak Android emulators allow you to use apps designed for smartphones on your computer. However, many emulators…
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OpenAI has failed to release the tool to opt-out or customize data collection the company promised to make available by 2025, according to Techcrunch.

OpenAI is one of several generative AI (genAI) companies that have faced criticism for training their AI models on copyrighted material without permission from the owners. The companies have instead argued that the AI ​​training should be classified as fair use (known as the concept of “fair use” in US law).

In May 2024, Open AI said a “Media Manager” tool would be able to identify copyrighted text, images, audio and video to reflect creators’ preferences across multiple sources. According to Techcrunch, however, the tool has never been further prioritized internally at the company.

OpenAI has so far not commented on the delay of Media Manager, or given any update on when the tool might be released.

Source:: Computer World

Combined with its existing solutions, Apple’s strategic approach to artificial intelligence (AI) deployment could make a radical difference to public health. Here is how it could achieve that.

Apple has already told us that achieving better health through better choices is fundamental to its approach. “Our goal is to empower people to take charge of their own health journey,” said Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of health, in 2023. 

While knowledge is power, anyone who’s ever sent themselves into a tidal wave of panic when searching for information on their own symptoms online should know that applying it effectively isn’t always easy. Everyone is different, with varying polarities around health. What works for some might work more effectively if optimized and personalized for others, reflecting unique characteristics such as age, weight, or gender.

Help is coming. We’ve known for a while that Apple hopes to be part of that solution, which is why it is developing AI to optimize the choices people take.

What difference does it make?

Multiple studies show how making better choices can help keep you healthy. It has already been shown that the iPhone and Apple Watch can help identify early onset of dementia, Parkinsons, respiratory diseases, and sleep apnea. More recently, the Apple-introduced Vitals app seems to be providing people with early warnings that they’re about to get sick; the company has also created tools to empower Apple’s customers with better insights into their own mental health. Apple’s vision for health straddles all its devices, including AirPods Pro, which now act as bona fide hearing aids and hearing test systems. 

What problems might these technologies alleviate? 

The World Health Organization predicts diabetes will impact 1.3 billion people by 2050, up from 830 million in 2022. Cardiovascular disease kills 17.9 million people each year. The third biggest killer, chronic respiratory disease, affects around seven in every 100 people on earth. The estimated cost of chronic disease is expected to reach $47 trillion globally by 2030. What all three conditions have in common is that they can in part be mitigated by early intervention lifestyle changes and better self-care decisions. 

Better health, one step at a time

Sure, it’s not a panacea — people near you will still suffer from health problems. But positive lifestyle changes can mitigate, prevent, and manage these conditions, at least some of the time. But, ultimately, it’s not just the lives saved when using Emergency SOS via Satellite from a remote location that matter, it’s also the many that may never encounter problems as a direct result of taking 10,000 steps a day and closing all the Activity rings on their Apple Watch.

The Health app is a major component of all of this. Think of it as a digital hub. Not only does it gather information from all your devices, but it also sucks in data from some third-party services and has the capacity to share and ingest information with health professionals. All those insights are private and personal to you, and Apple wants to keep it that way. 

All of its systems aim to gather as little data as possible about you. When it comes to health, the intention is to ensure your data doesn’t enter the surveillance economy, (though Apple’s privacy commitment could yet be torn apart by clumsy regulation).

But is it safe?

In taking this approach, Apple is grappling with the biggest challenge to wider deployment of AI. In response to the ever-corroding experience of intrusive surveillance advertising and the challenge of privacy protection in a digital age, people are reluctant to share health data. By crafting systems that don’t require direct access to your data, Apple has an opportunity to unlock the potential benefits of personal health AI without also creating another attack surface against digital privacy. 

The risk is that if the company is forced to open up its systems, it might also be forced to open up your personal health data to third-party firms with which you don’t have the same depth of trust. With that in mind, it’s understandable the company might not introduce these systems if regulators insist on exposing personal information to outside companies less committed to privacy.

To avoid this, Apple must convince governments that the benefits of digital privacy far outweigh the costs of removing it. It needs to be able to build a health OS that can support third-party developers while also protecting user data. The prize? The opportunity to build a powerful personalized preventative AI-augmented health care anyone can hook themselves into for the price of an Apple One subscription. The risk? An incredibly intrusive exfiltration of personal information. 

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, and MeWe. 

Source:: Computer World

By Hisan Kidwai Blade Ball is a popular Roblox game where players must dodge and deflect a deadly ball…
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It’s the calm before the storm.

Today, on New Year’s Day, we have a brief moment to pause and prepare — and set ourselves up for success.

From a tech perspective, that means taking the time to clean up and optimize your smartphone setup. That way, when the inevitable craziness hits, you’ll be ready to tackle whatever comes your way with smart, sensible systems and all the best apps already in place and ready to serve you.

We’ve already thought through the top Android tips and Google Android app tricks from 2024 — and even the most noteworthy Pixel-specific advice from the past year. Today, it’s time to shift our focus and look at some of the most exceptional (and often off-the-beaten-path) third-party Android apps that can really expand your experience and grant you some exceptionally effective new productivity powers.

Take a peek through the following standout suggestions — 44 awesome apps to explore, spread out over a dozen different articles! — and for even more Android Intelligence, make sure you’re set to receive my free Android Intelligence newsletter, too. You’ll get three new things to try in your inbox every Friday, and you’ll get my game-changing Android Notification Power Pack as a special welcome bonus.

Here we go!

2024’s top Android app advice

Meet the floating Android note app of the future

This dazzlingly different Android note app floats your most important info in an incredibly interesting way.

The secret to summarizing notifications on Android

With about 60 seconds of simple setup, you can have Google’s Gemini AI genie sum up your incoming notifications this instant — no matter what Android device you’re using.

11 Android Quick Settings additions that’ll supercharge your efficiency

These out-of-sight tiles will turn your favorite phone into an even more powerful productivity powerhouse.

3 secrets to a smarter Android status bar

A trio of quick ‘n’ easy enhancements to transform the top of your screen into a time-saving power-hub.

22 must-have Android widgets for busy professionals

The most exceptional widgets around for making your favorite device’s home screen much more useful.

Android widgets gone wild

Why stop with the home screen? This wow-worthy widget wonder will make whatever Android device you’re using infinitely more efficient — in a way that only Android could provide.

An awesome Android audio upgrade

Whether you’re dealing with mumblings from meetings, noises from notifications, or music from commute-time streaming, you’ve never experienced sound on your phone like this.

The best Android app drawer enhancement you’ll ever make

Free your phone’s app drawer from its shackles and watch your efficiency soar.

An instant Android motion sickness upgrade

Ever wish you could look down at your phone or tablet in a car without getting queasy? Here’s your answer.

60 seconds to a smarter Android screen timeout

This quick ‘n’ simple enhancement will make your day-to-day Android doings meaningfully more pleasant.

This awesome Android weather app reads the forecast out loud

A thoughtful interface, on-demand audio forecasts, and actual human meteorologists set this app apart.

Bonus: 8 AI-powered apps that’ll actually save you time

Most AI apps are buzzword-chasing hype-mongers. These eight off-the-beaten-path supertools — while not entirely Android-specific — are rare exceptions.

A very happy New Year to you. Here’s to many new geeky, Googley adventures ahead!

Give yourself the gift of endless Android Intelligence in 2025 with my free weekly newsletter — three new things to try in your inbox every Friday and six powerful new notification enhancements the second you sign up!

Source:: Computer World

By Hisan Kidwai If you like fishing games, then Fisch needs no introduction. For everyone else, Fisch is a…
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By Nick Godt Faraday Future will unveil its FX 5 EV prototype, priced $20,000-$30,000, at CES 2025 in Las Vegas.

Source:: Digital Trends

Microsoft is a little sneaky. Sure, there’s just one “big” update for Windows 11 each year. But Microsoft’s Windows team is always working on something, and new Windows 11 features are arriving on PCs every month — even outside of those high-profile updates.

So as we arrive at the end of 2024, let’s review the most interesting and useful new features that have shown up on Windows 11 in the past year. I bet you’ll find at least a few features you haven’t yet discovered!

And be sure to sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter for even more useful knowledge. I’ll keep you up to date on all the interesting new features you can find and explore as we get into the new year.

New Windows 11 features #1—3: Phone integration powers

Use an Android phone as a webcam, wirelessly

Windows now lets you use your Android phone as a webcam. It all happens entirely wirelessly, if you like — no cables! The setup process is quick, and it’s particularly useful if you’re not a big fan of your PC’s on-board webcam quality.

Get PC notifications when you take new photos or screenshots on Android

Windows can now pop up a notification whenever you take a new photo or screenshot on your Android phone. Then you can click that notification to immediately transfer the photo and open it for viewing, editing, or sharing on your PC.

Transfer files to and from Android phones, wirelessly

Once you’ve connected your Android phone to your PC for the above wireless features, you’ll also see your phone pop up in File Explorer. You can transfer files to and from your Android phone right from File Explorer — wirelessly!

New Windows 11 features #4—5: Windows taming tricks

Why Widgets on Windows 11 are finally worth using

Windows 11’s built-in Widgets menu got some big updates in 2024. It’s worth giving it a second chance now that you can tweak various options to hide the viral article feed and customize it further.

Remove stocks and sports from your PC’s lock screen

Windows now shows stock prices and sports updates alongside the weather on your lock screen — it’s a recent update, too! (That said, many people won’t be fans of this.)

New Windows 11 features #6—8: New Microsoft apps

Try the new Sticky Notes app

Out with the old and in with the new! Windows has a new Sticky Notes app that’s more closely integrated with OneNote.

The ultimate Windows app launcher

Microsoft’s PowerToys package isn’t included with Windows, but it’s an honorary part of the operating system as far as I’m concerned. In 2024, Microsoft released an especially powerful application-launcher-and-arranger named PowerToys Workspaces. It’s a big productivity upgrade for many people.

Activate and use the PowerToys New+ menu

Speaking of PowerToys, Microsoft also launched an even more powerful and flexible “New+” menu that lets you quickly create new files and folders from templates right in File Explorer. I’m already putting this one to good use myself.

New Windows 11 features #9—12: AI grab bag

Erase objects from photos with AI on your PC

Microsoft’s Photos app includes a new Generative Erase feature that works on all Windows 11 PCs — and on Windows 10 PCs, too! You can select objects in photos and use this AI-powered erase to get rid of them.

Microsoft wants Copilot to be your new AI best friend

Windows got a brand-spanking-new Copilot app this year. Beyond productivity, Copilot now wants to be your best buddy!

5 Copilot+ PC AI features you can use at launch

Some of the newest PCs are branded “Copilot+ PCs,” and they have access to new AI-based Windows features. Again, these don’t work on most Windows 11 PCs — these need a new Copilot+ PC. Here are the AI features you can use on those PCs.

Hands on with Microsoft’s Windows Recall

Recall is the most controversial Windows feature of the year. It’s still available only in testing form right now — but I’m experimenting with it, and you can see how it works.

Bonus: More Windows AI features

10 Windows 11 AI features you can use today

Okay — technically this one is from December 2023, but who’s counting? All Windows 11 PCs include AI features, even if they aren’t Copilot+ PCs. This guide reveals what you can use today on any Windows 11 PC.

Stay tuned: 2025 promises to be even more of a busy year when it comes to Windows development. We’ll explore it all together, every step of the way.

Don’t wait for next year’s December review! Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter now, and I’ll send you three new things to know and try every single Friday.

Source:: Computer World

In 2024, the surge in generative AI (genAI) pilot projects sparked concerns over high experimentation costs and uncertain benefits. That prompted companies to then shift their focus to delivering business outcomes, enhancing data quality, and developing talent.

In 2025, enterprises are expected to prioritize strategy, add business-IT partnerships to assist with genAI projects and move from large language model (LLM) pilots to production instances. And small language models will also likely come into their own, addressing specific tasks without overburdening data center processing and power.

Organizations will also adopt new technologies and architectures to better govern data and AI, with a return to predictive AI, according to Forrester Research.

Predictive AI uses historical data and techniques such as machine learning and statistics to forecast future events or behaviors, said Forrester analyst Jayesh Chaurasia. GenAI, on the other hand, creates new content — such as images, text, videos, or synthetic data — leveraging deep learning methods such as generative adversarial networks (GANs). Chaurasia predicts the AI pendulum will swing back to predictive AI for over 50% of use cases.

LLMs are, of course, central to genAI, helping enterprises tackle complex tasks and improve operations. Forrester reported that 55% of US genAI decision-makers with a strategy use LLMs embedded in applications, while 33% purchase domain-specific genAI apps. Meanwhile, SLMs are quickly gaining attention.

The rise of small and mid-sized language models should enable customers to better meet the trade-offs on accuracy, speed and costs, said Arun Chandrasekaran, a distinguished vice president analyst with Gartner Research, noting that “Most organizations are still struggling to realize business value from their genAI investment.”

Gartner

In the coming year, SLM integration could surge by as much as 60%, according to a Forrester report.

As nearly eight-in-10 IT decision makers report software costs rising over the past year, they’re looking to SLMs because they’re more cost-effective and offer better accuracy, relevance, and trustworthiness by training on specific domains. They’re also easier to integrate and excel in specialized industries such as finance, healthcare, and legal services.

By 2025, 750 million apps are expected to use LLMs, underscoring the genAI market’s rapid growth. Forrester predicts the market will grow in value from $1.59 billion in 2023 to $259.8 billion by 2030,. 

Even with that growth, many AI experts argue that LLMs may be excessive for automating workflows and repetitive tasks, both in terms of performance and environmental impact. A Cornell University study found that training OpenAI’s GPT-3 LLM consumed 500 metric tons of carbon, the equivalent of 1.1 million pounds.

As enterprises face challenges meeting expectations, gen AI investments in 2025 will likely shift toward proven predictive AI applications like maintenance, personalization, supply chain optimization, and demand forecasting. Forward-thinking organizations will also recognize the synergy between predictive and generative AI, using predictions to enhance generative outputs. That approach is expected to boost the share of combined use cases from 28% today to 35%, according to Forrester.

What are small language models?

In the simplest of terms, an SLM is a lightweight genAI model. The “small” in this context refers to the size of the model’s neural network, the number of parameters, and the volume of data on which it is trained, according to Rosemary Thomas, a senior technical researcher in the AI lab at Version 1, a management consulting and software development firm.

SLMs use fewer computational resources, enabling on-premises or private cloud deployment, which natively enhances privacy and security.

While some SLM implementations can require substantial compute and memory resources, several models can have more than 5 billion parameters and run on a single GPU, Thomas said.

Gartner Research defines SLMs differently, as language models with 10 billion parameters or less. Compared to LLMs, they are two to three orders of magnitude (around 100-1,000x) smaller, making them significantly more cost-efficient to use or customize.

SLMs include Google Gemini Nano, Microsoft’s Orca-2–7b and Orca-2–13b, Meta’s Llama-2–13b, and others, Thomas noted in a recent post, arguing that SLM growth is being driven by the need for more efficient models and the speed at which they can be trained and set up.

Gartner

“SLMs have gained popularity due to practical considerations such as computational resources, training time, and specific application requirements,” Thomas said. “Over the past couple of years, SLMs have become increasingly relevant, especially in scenarios where sustainability and efficiency are crucial.”

SLMs enable most organizations to achieve task specialization, improving the accuracy, robustness, and reliability of genAI solutions, according to Gartner. And because deployment costs, data privacy, and risk mitigation are key challenges when using genAI, SLMs offer a cost-effective and energy-efficient alternative to LLMs for most organizations, Gartner said.

Three out of four (75%) of IT-decision makers believe SLMs outperform LLMs in speed, cost, accuracy and ROI, according to a Harris Poll of more than 500 users commissioned by the start-up Hyperscience.

“Data is the lifeblood of any AI initiative, and the success of these projects hinges on the quality of the data that feeds the models,” said Andrew Joiner, CEO of Hyperscience, which develops AI-based office work automation tools. “Alarmingly, three out of five decision makers report their lack of understanding of their own data inhibits their ability to utilize genAI to its maximum potential. The true potential…lies in adopting tailored SLMs, which can transform document processing and enhance operational efficiency.”

Gartner recommends that organizations customize SLMs to specific needs for better accuracy, robustness, and efficiency. “Task specialization improves alignment, while embedding static organizational knowledge reduces costs. Dynamic information can still be provided as needed, making this hybrid approach both effective and efficient,” the research firm said.

In highly regulated industries, such as financial services, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, the future of LLMs is definitely small, according to  Emmanuel Walckenaer, CEO of Yseop, a vendor that offers pre-trained genAI models for the BioPharma industry.

Smaller, more specialized models will reduce wasted time and energy spent on building large models that aren’t needed for current tasks, according to Yseop.

Agentic AI holds promise, but it’s not yet mature

In the year ahead, there is likely to be a rise in domain-specific AI agents, “although it is unclear how many of these agents can live up to the lofty expectations,” according to Gartner’s Chandrasekaran.

While Agentic AI architectures are a top emerging technology, they’re still two years away from reaching the lofty automation expected of them, according to Forrester.

While companies are eager to push genAI into complex tasks through AI agents, the technology remains challenging to develop because it mostly relies on synergies between multiple models, customization through retrieval augmented generation (RAG), and specialized expertise. “Aligning these components for specific outcomes is an unresolved hurdle, leaving developers frustrated,” Forrester said in its report.

A recent Capital One survey of 4,000 business leaders and technical practitioners across industries found that while 87% believe their data ecosystem is ready for AI at scale, 70% of technologists spend hours daily fixing data issues.

Still, Capital One’s survey revealed strong optimism among business leaders about their companies’ AI readiness. Notably, 87% believe they have a modern data ecosystem for scaling AI solutions, 84% report having centralized tools and processes for data management, 82% are confident in their data strategy for AI adoption, and 78% feel prepared to manage the increasing volume and complexity of AI-driven data.

And yet, 75% of enterprises attempting to build AI agents in-house next year are expected to fail, opting instead for consulting services or pre-integrated agents from existing software vendors. To address the mismatch between AI data preparedness and real-world complexities in 2025, 30% of enterprise CIOs will integrate Chief Data Officers (CDOs) into their IT teams as they lead AI initiatives, according to Forrester Research. CEOs will rely on CIOs to bridge the gap between technical and business expertise, recognizing that successful AI requires both solid data foundations and effective stakeholder collaboration.

Forrester’s 2024 survey also showed that 39% of senior data leaders report to CIOs, with a similar 37% reporting to CEOs — and that trend is growing. To drive AI success, CIOs and CEOs must elevate CDOs beyond being mere liaisons, positioning them as key leaders in AI strategy, change management, and delivering ROI.

A growing interest in multi-modality — and upskilling

Emerging use cases for multi-modality, particularly image and speech as modalities in both genAI inputs and outputs, will also see more adoption in 2025.

Multimodal learning, a subfield of AI, enhances machine learning by training models on diverse data types, including text, images, videos, and audio. The approach enables models to identify patterns and correlations between text and associated sensory data.

By integrating multiple data types, multimodal AI expands the capabilities of intelligent systems. These models can process various input types and generate diverse outputs. For example, GPT-4, the foundation of ChatGPT, accepts both text and image inputs to produce text outputs, while OpenAI’s Sora model generates videos from text.

Other examples include medical imaging, patient history, and lab results that can be integrated to enhance pateitn diagnosis and treatment. In financial services, multimodal AI can analyze customer phone queries to assist contact center employees in resolving issues. And in the automotive industry inputs from cameras, GPS, and LiDAR can be integrated by AI to enhance autonomous driving, emergency response, and navigation for companies, such as Tesla, Waymo and Li Auto.

AI leaders have also realized they need to prioritize business outcomes, clean their data houses, and start building AI talent. The latter is especially important given the growing gap between enterprise genAI needs and the workers with skills to meet those needs.

“In the year ahead, you’ll need to put your nose to the grindstone to develop an effective AI strategy and implementation plan,” Forrester said in its report. “In 2025, organizational success will depend on strong leadership, strategic refinement, and recalibration of enterprise data and AI initiatives commensurate with AI aspirations.”

Source:: Computer World

By Hisan Kidwai When I travel to a new country, a million things need to be done, such as…
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By Nick Godt Global sales of EVs are expected to grow 30% in 2025.

Source:: Digital Trends

OpenAI thinks it has found a way to make its transformation from non-profit to for-profit a little more palatable: make the for-profit part a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation, while quietly limiting the ability of the non-profit board to oversee commercial operations.

It outlined its plans in a blog post on Friday, saying that giving the for-profit arm more freedom, albeit as a public benefit corporation, “would result in one of the best resourced non-profits in history.”

The blog post — unsigned, and attributed only to “OpenAI” — said that under the current structure, the board’s main function is to control the for-profit arm, while under the new structure it will pursue charitable initiatives in sectors such as health care, education, and science while leaving management of the commercial operations to the public benefit corporation.

“As we enter 2025, we will have to become more than a lab and a startup — we have to become an enduring company,” the blog post said. 

OpenAI’s goal, when it was founded as a non-profit company (the “lab”) in 2015, was to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.” It began life with promises of $1 billion in donations in cash or kind from individual and corporate donors — including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Amazon Web Services, Infosys, and YC Research — although it has received less than $140 million of that in cash, and upwards of $100 million in compute credits and discounts from hyperscalers, according to its website.

In 2019, realizing that the computing capacity necessary to build an artificial generation intelligence would cost closer to $10 billion, OpenAI created a for-profit business (the “startup”) under its control, capping investors’ share of profits and keeping the rest to fund its research.

As it became clear that OpenAI’s generative AI technology could be immensely profitable, the pressure from shareholders and would-be shareholders has grown to lift that profit cap and open the company up to more investment. It has been trying to allay concerns about what this means for its revised mission to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity” — while at the same time pushing OpenAI investors to stifle AI innovation elsewhere.

Over the last year, this has led to tensions within the management team, prompting a number of key staff to leave and create their own generative AI companies, many of them citing a desire to place more emphasis on the safety of their designs than on profit.

Structuring OpenAI’s for-profit activities as a public benefit corporation under Delaware state law is what the board hopes will make it “an enduring company,” it Friday’s blog post said.

In Delaware, public benefit corporations must be managed in a way that balances the interests of stockholders and stakeholders with the realization of specific public benefits defined in its certificate of incorporation. Those benefits can be artistic, charitable, cultural, economic, educational, environmental, literary, medical, religious, scientific, or technological, and favor one or more categories of persons, communities, or interests.

How exactly OpenAI defines the public benefit or benefits to be pursued by its for-profit arm, could help determine the idea’s reception.

Some, though, are against the changes at any price. Musk — who OpenAI said donated less than one-third of its initial funding — and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have both sought to block OpenAI’s move to become a for-profit.

Source:: Computer World

The Silicon Valley hype cycle follows a familiar pattern: an emerging technology or tech product or service is hinted at, rumored, leaked, reported on, announced, and then shipped. 

That’s the cycle for what actually happens. At any point during this cycle, the rumors or leaks might turn out to be wrong. Companies could change their minds, or internal trials might show that they shouldn’t pursue an actual direction.

In other cases, specific ideas, products, or trends do arrive, but fail to capture the world and fizzle out. Products and ideas that everyone thought would become the Next Big Thing now populate the graveyard of failed tech. These include the Apple Newton, 3D television, the Segway, Theranos blood testing technology, Google Wave, WebTV, the Pebble smartwatch, Project Ara, and many more. 

In 2024, we gained clarity on several of these tech promises and assumptions.

1. Apple won’t make a car

Rumors about Apple developing a car started circulating in 2015. It partnered with car companies, hired a large number of car specialists, patented car-related patents, and more. But in February 2024, we learned that Apple had dropped its so-called “Project Titan.”

Apple began testing self-driving vehicles on public roads in California after getting a California Department of Motor Vehicles permit in 2017. The company used a fleet of modified Lexus SUVs equipped with sensors to test self-driving technologies. But in September 2024, Apple formally terminated its self-driving vehicle testing permit in California. The project’s 600 or so employees were reassigned internally or laid off.

2. Glasses are The Next Big Thing

While wearables have served as an interesting hobby and object of fascination for tech-obsessed or fitness-obsessed users for decades, it became clear in 2024 that face-top computers, also known as AR glasses, AI glasses, VR glasses, spatial computing glasses, and smart glasses will dominate the world of wearables in the near future, Beyond that they’re also likely to become the only user interface to replace smartphones as the main way people interact with computers and the cloud. 

The surprise hit of the year was Ray-Ban Meta glasses. At the beginning of the year, sales were very slow. But thanks to generally positive word-of-mouth recommendations, an estimated 2 million glasses have been sold. 

At Meta’s 2024 Connect event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Meta Orion, an advanced AR glasses platform running Meta AI with a 70-degree field of view, Micro LED projectors, and waveguides in silicon carbide lenses — all weighing only 98 grams. 

XREAL impressed with its One Series, featuring the world’s first cinematic AR glasses with an independent spatial computing chip. Snap enhanced its Spectacles line with gesture control and integrated AI.

Also this year, Google announced Project Astra, which aims to integrate AI assistants into camera-equipped glasses.

Common sense favors glasses, as they enable screens directly in front of the eyes, speakers very close to the ears, cameras that look wherever the head turns, and microphones close to mouths. And glasses are a general form factor already accepted by more than 4 billion people worldwide who wear corrective lenses. 

3. Drones are the future of warfare

At the beginning of the year, it appeared drones might actually have some military application, most likely for battlefield surveillance and other limited uses. Now that 2024 has come to an end, it’s clear that drones are by far the most important military platform since the tank. 

Speaking of tanks, Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO and the current owner of a secretive military drone company called Project Eagle (formerly White Stork), said, “A $5,000 drone can destroy a $5,000,000 tank,” calling tanks “largely useless now.” 

After Russia began jamming Ukrainian drone control and GPS signals, state-of-the-art drones chose their own targets and navigated using AI, making them autonomous killing machines.

Drones have revolutionized modern warfare by providing cost-effective, precise, and versatile capabilities that significantly alter military strategies and operations. They enhance intelligence gathering and enable highly accurate strikes. Drones have democratized airpower, allowing smaller nations and non-state actors to challenge larger militaries. This has forced larger nation-states (including the United States, China, and Russia) to scramble to develop anti-drone solutions and drone innovations of their own. (China alone is reportedly working on roughly 50 different kinds of military drones.)

Let’s be clear, though — war-like drones are not hovering routinely over New Jersey.

4. AI is indispensable for cyber security

In 2024, cyberattackers used AI to greatly increase the sophistication, scale, and speed of cyberattacks, making it clear that the best defense against AI-powered attacks is an AI-powered defense. 

AI-based attacks can adapt in real time, evade detection systems, and exploit vulnerabilities at an unprecedented scale. To counter these advanced threats, cybersecurity professionals must leverage AI-powered tools that can analyze vast amounts of data in real-time, detect anomalies, and respond to threats with greater speed and accuracy than is possible without AI tools. This is especially true because of the ongoing skills shortage in cybersecurity. 

5. Self-driving cars work

Self-driving cars might not be reliable or safe enough anytime soon to operate on public roads. But developments in 2024 proved that self-driving cars are really happening, especially from Alphabet’s Waymo. That company unveiled the sixth generation of its Waymo Driver autonomous driving system this year and expanded services to the public in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. 

This year, we also learned that Waymo’s self-driving cars are far safer than human-driven vehicles. A 2024 study found an 88% reduction in property damage claims and a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims compared to human drivers.

6. Generative AI will be our teachers

Moral panic about AI chatbots and other tools “dumbing people down” is widespread. However, the public generally ignores the use of those same AI technologies to accelerate human learning.

The best example of this capability is Google’s NotebookLM. 

While the company announced the service and ran a very limited beta program in 2023, it opened NotebookLM to US users a year ago and to the world in June 2024. Most importantly, Google added an “Audio Overviews” feature in September and made NotebookLM a real product called NotebookLM Plus for enterprises and paid subscribers. 

While NotebookLM is described as a smart note-taking tool, it really excels at consuming highly complex material — scientific papers, lectures, and whole books — and transforming it into explanations at any level. 

Rather than reading advanced material, it’s far faster and more engaging to let NotebookLM’s “Audio Overviews” feature create a life-like podcast for you to listen to. It will create a “study guide,” a FAQ, a “briefing guide,” and a timeline, enabling you to quickly look at dense content from multiple angles, perspectives, and levels. You can start by asking the chatbot to explain it to you like you’re a sixth-grader, then a high school senior, then an undergrad, and on up until you’ve mastered the material. 

LLM-based AI brings to education: Thanks to tools like NotebookLM, there’s literally no such thing as content too complicated or advanced to understand. We can now learn practically anything very quickly. 

The year 2024 was a groundbreaking year for technology, with many big tech questions finally answered once and for all. 

Source:: Computer World

By Partner Content Looking for a reliable way to convert YouTube to MP3 on your Mac computer? In this…
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