Apple Inc got an early start in artificial intelligence (AI) software with the 2011 introduction of Siri, a tool that lets users operate their smartphones with voice commands.
Now the electronics giant is bringing AI to chips.
Apple is working on a processor devoted specifically to AI-related tasks, a person familiar with the matter said.
The chip, known internally as the Apple Neural Engine, would improve the way Apple devices handle tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence, such as facial and speech recognition, said the person, who requested anonymity discussing a product that has not been made public.
Apple declined to comment.
Engineers at Apple are racing to catch their peers at Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc in the booming field of AI.
While Siri gave Apple an early advantage in voice-recognition, competitors have been more aggressive in deploying AI across their product lines, including Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home digital assistants.
“Two of the areas that Apple is betting its future on require AI,” said Gene Munster, former Apple analyst and cofounder of venture capital firm Loup Ventures. “At the core of augmented reality and self-driving cars is artificial intelligence.”
Apple devices handle complex AI processes with two different chips: the main processor and the graphics chip. The new chip would let Apple offload those tasks onto a dedicated module designed specifically for demanding AI processing, allowing Apple to improve battery performance.
Should Apple bring the chip out of testing and development, it would follow other semiconductor makers that have already introduced dedicated AI chips.
Qualcomm Inc’s Snapdragon chip for smartphones has a module for handling AI tasks, while Google announced its first chip, called the Tensor Processing Unit, last year.
That chip worked in Google’s data centers to power search results and image recognition. At its I/O conference this year, Google announced a new version that is to be available to clients of its cloud business.
Nvidia Corp also sells a similar chip to cloud customers.
Apple has tested prototypes of new iPhones with the chip, the person with knowledge of the matter said, adding that it is unclear if the component will be ready this year.
The company’s operating systems and software features would integrate with devices that include the chip.
For example, Apple has considered offloading facial recognition in the photographs application, some parts of speech recognition, and the iPhone’s predictive keyboard to the chip, the person said.
Apple also plans to offer developer access to the chip so third-party apps can also offload AI-related tasks, the person said.
An AI chip would join a growing list of processors that Apple has created in-house.
The company began designing its own main processors for the iPhone and iPad in 2010 with the A4 chip. It has since released dedicated processors to power the Apple Watch, the motion sensors across its products, the wireless components inside of its AirPods and the fingerprint scanner in the MacBook Pro.
The company has also tested a chip to run the low-power mode on Mac laptops.
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