One of the main computer manufacturers, Lenovo, presented this year at its annual TechWorld conference a lot of news about what it is about to bring to the market and - you guessed it - artificial intelligence is the star. The Chinese multinational, in alliance with all the major chip manufacturers, wants to bring AI into every device. Luca Rossi, executive vice president of Lenovo and president of the smart devices division, says that these tools will surprise us.
Why does AI involve new computers?
Not only the PC, but also tablets and smartphones. The world has seen that a great generative language model can do a lot of good things and increase productivity.
But is it only possible with new machines?
Inferring the data requires a large amount of computing power. Now that computing power is in the cloud and there is a sustainability issue. Every query you make to the cloud is costing you a fortune in terms of energy consumption and, obviously, emissions. There is also a privacy issue. When you ask the computer "please tell me which cake to make tomorrow", nothing happens. But when you upload your bank account details and ask how much money you'll need to save next year, will you feel just as comfortable? I do not think so.
Can't we do this with what we already have?
You need a lot of computing power. You already have AMD and Intel models on the market with an NPU – neural processing unit, a kind of chip for AI – which is a new word that we will have to get used to. The cloud will continue to be more powerful, but the PC will be powerful enough to run a language model. So this is the big innovation coming.
This already works on a good number of new computers today.
During the next two years there will be an acceleration of technology from a hardware point of view, with new computers that are smaller, lighter, faster and with longer battery life. And, of course, the software will also evolve. Big companies, like Microsoft and Adobe, are creating software applications that take advantage of this NPU to do things that will leave you stunned in front of your computer. I think it will be a good reason to buy a new PC, but also to buy a new phone.
Will AI change our phones too?
In a way, it will be a new category at first. Several years ago, smartphones started as a new category and eventually replaced other phones. No more phones. There are smartphones. And AI PC – AI PC, in English – will be a new category with time and the PC will be dead.
Is it the only trend?
What we announce with Nvidia is important. Among the highlights is our work in continuous innovation with foldable technology with a prototype phone from Motorola that can be folded over the wrist. It is a prototype, but it shows how advanced the research is. Last year we showed a rollable mobile phone.
And a glasses-free 3D monitor that works thanks to AI.
3D to me is interesting because it never took off in the past for one reason. Not because the experience was bad, but because when you have huge glasses on your face, nobody is happy. So 3D TVs failed. But our monitor will succeed, because it is a very emotional experience, since you really see 3D without glasses.
How does it work?
It has a camera that looks at your eyes and the artificial intelligence algorithm stitches the images together and recombines them so you see them in 3D. For now it has a limitation, that it can only do it for one user. Probably in three years we will present one that can cover five users at the same time, because it will have ten cameras. That's the beauty of innovation.
Doesn't it feel like companies are showing off too many things just because they can be done, without solving a real need?
Let me give you an example. I think it was 2017 when we showed the first prototype of a folding PC. If we had had this conversation then, I would have wondered if it was helpful or if we were just doing it for fun. And now we have two generations on the market. We intend to introduce it to the market as long as it proves to be economically viable and benefits the user. Innovations are always created that remain in the laboratory because there is no value for the user.
Will AI change the way we work with machines?
One of the promises that the industry has not fulfilled is interaction with the machine through voice. What will change the game is the machine's ability to understand you, even if you speak in a conversational way using your entire vocabulary or say something elaborate, not very direct, that my mother can do. And this I believe will take voice machine interaction to the next level in less than two years. I think it will be very, very important because suddenly you won't need keyboards and mice. We will be very inclusive to attract more users and reduce the digital divide.
Is this a watershed moment in technology history?
AI is, in a broad sense, a revolution like the internet was in the 1990s, when Google was created in 1998. It is this kind of impact that the progress of this technology will have on the progress of society.
