Microsoft preparing 'AI PC' branding for 2024 systems

Microsoft is reportedly looking at pushing full steam ahead into the world of AI -- riding the wave of artificial intelligence that saw the company launching its generative AI-powered Copilot software for Microsoft 365 enterprise customers this week -- and now we're expecting the rise of the "AI PC" in 2024 and beyond. What will the "AI PC" do more than a "non-AI PC"? Well, we don't know, and I don't think it'll be much.

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We're seeing Qualcomm push AI into its processors, AMD has Ryzen AI on some of its processors, and Intel's new Meteor Lake CPUs will have a dedicated AI chip that will handle artificial intelligence tasks. What are those tasks? Well, we're going to see them shoved down our throat over the coming 18 months... where it seems Microsoft will be leading the charge with Windows and Office and AI-powered "Copilot" additions.

The next sticker on computer systems will be for the "AI PC," and it seems Microsoft will have a particular metric -- an AI benchmark of TOPS performance -- that an "AI PC" would perform and be scored on its AI performance. This will give Microsoft another noose to tie around OEM's necks, making sure they fall into line with "AI PC" performance on their new systems.

Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake CPUs feature an AI chip that the company will say has "Core AI capabilities" that we'll find out about on December 14 at their "AI Everywhere" event, where they'll unveil the new Meteor Lake CPUs. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger explained recently that "the arrival of the AI PC represents an inflection point in the PC industry." AMD CEO Lisa Su said that the company "expected some growth going into 2024 as we think about sort of the AI PC cycle and some of the (Microsoft) Windows refresh cycles".

• Read more: Intel announces 'AI Everywhere' event for December 14, new 'Meteor Lake' CPUs
• Read more: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite: 4.6 TFLOPs = more GPU power than Xbox Series S
• Read more: AMD, Arm, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm team up for next-gen AI standards
• Read more: Microsoft's Copilot AI just arrived for more Windows 11 testers

Wait... what is Copilot in Windows? Microsoft's new Copilot for Windows 11 is an AI-powered intelligence assistant that will help you get answers and inspirations from across the web, has support for creativity and collaboration, and helps you focus on the task at hand. To access it, update to the latest version of Windows and then press the Windows key + C, and you'll access Copilot.

I'm sure we're going to see the "AI PC" tied into Copilot and maybe some upgraded abilities over the next 3-6-9 months, which will allow Microsoft to push in this new system and have OEMs offer "AI PCs" with varying AI performance. Ugh. I don't know if I like this idea one bit.