AI PC (personal intelligent computer) products spawned by AI empowerment have become a battleground for major manufacturers.
On April 18th, at the 10th Lenovo Innovation and Technology Conference Tech World, Lenovo officially released a new species of AI - AI PC series products with built-in personal agent "Lenovo Xiaotian", which can interact with users and is considered to be an artificial intelligence personalized computer.
Brokerage China reporters noticed that mainstream PC manufacturers that are actively embracing changes have launched new AI PC products. In addition to Lenovo's release of new AI PC products, in March and early April this year, Honor and Huawei respectively released the first AI PC product and the first application of Huawei's Pangu large model AI PC product. Overseas, Apple, Microsoft, and Intel have also entered the AI PC market to seize new market space.
Industry analysts believe that under the leadership of technology giants, AI has begun to show the potential to subvert terminals, AI empowerment superimposed replacement cycle, 2024 may become the first year of AI PC, with large model + big data + large computing power AI PC is expected to ignite the productivity revolution.
Lenovo releases AI "new species"
On April 18, at the 10th Lenovo Innovation and Technology Conference Tech World, Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group, officially unveiled the new species of AI, "Lenovo officially released the real AI PC series products in the Chinese market, one of which is the Yoga Book 9i in my hand", Yang Yuanqing said.
(Yang Yuanqing shows new AI PC products)
According to Yang Yuanqing, this new AI species has five characteristics. The first feature is that it is equipped with a personalized AI Agent-Lenovo Xiaotian. Xiaotian has a built-in personal model, which can interact naturally with users. It can truly understand your natural language and intentions, is good at learning and reflecting, has a superhuman memory, knows its responsibilities and boundaries, can form a logical and rigorous chain of reasoning, and can break down complex tasks and make plans.
At the same time, the AI PC also has a combination of CPU, GPU, and NPU powerful local heterogeneous computing power, with the ability to build a personal knowledge base for each owner, connect to the open AI application ecosystem, and protect personal data and privacy security.
"With these five features, the PC will no longer be a Personal Computer, but an AI Personalized Computer. Yang Yuanqing said.
(Meeting site)
With the increasing maturity of AI technology, artificial intelligence will gradually enter a new stage of application from technological breakthroughs.
Yang Yuanqing pointed out that the implementation is inseparable from the coverage of smart devices, smart infrastructure, smart solutions and services, which are also the three pillars of Lenovo Group's promotion of AI inclusiveness. For individual users, the most convenient path to an AI experience is to use a personal computing device with a built-in personal agent.
Luca Rossi, executive vice president of Lenovo Group and president of the Intelligent Devices Business Group (IDG), said that today's AI PC is just the beginning. Lenovo will adopt a rolling product strategy to continuously bring more new AI-powered devices to the market and lead the global AI revolution. Lenovo is working with the industry's largest silicon and operating system partners to create devices that meet the high-performance demands of AI.
Is hybrid AI the way of the future?
At present, a disruptive change triggered by artificial intelligence is quietly unfolding in all walks of life, and human beings are facing another kind of "intelligence".
In this regard, Yang Yuanqing believes that AI is essentially a technical means, and with its assistance, human imagination will be more easily transformed into reality.
At the conference, the famous Chinese director Lu Chuan elaborated on the impact of artificial intelligence on artistic creation in combination with his own practice, saying that as soon as ChatGPT appeared, he felt that a new era might come, and when he watched the video generated by the Sora system, he felt anxious; ”
"AI can greatly improve the visualization speed of creativity, and help thousands of young people with film dreams to cross the threshold of funding and directly present the great movie in their minds. Lu Chuan said that he announced that he would work with Lenovo to build an "AI Imaging Lab" to open up a new world for the use of AI in the film industry.
How can artificial intelligence reach and empower more industries? In Lenovo's view, hybrid artificial intelligence is the inevitable path. In his speech, Yang Yuanqing said that the public model is a catalyst and accelerator for the popularization of AI, but there are limitations in terms of network speed, cloud efficiency, cost considerations, and data privacy. In the hybrid AI framework, the personal model and the enterprise model, as well as the personal agent and enterprise agent developed on the basis of it, will coexist and complement the public model to provide more personalized services and meet the needs of privacy protection.
Qualcomm President and CEO Ammon said at the conference that the PC industry is ushering in an exciting time, and hybrid AI is the future of AI. Hybrid AI leverages AI on both the device side and in the cloud to distribute and orchestrate workloads through high-performance connectivity, resulting in smarter, personalized user experiences. When the same generative AI model is used in the cloud and on the device, the device can bring a first-mover advantage to the cloud. End-side data can also improve the accuracy of AI applications, as it now has contextual information about the user.
To meet these generative AI-centric experience demands, industry-leading connectivity and high-performance, low-power computing are more important than ever. Consumers and businesses alike can take advantage of AI-enhanced end-side tools to boost productivity, creativity, and collaboration around the clock.
Mainstream manufacturers rush to AI PCs
The current tech giants have stepped down and are racing to compete for the AI PC market.
In domestic manufacturers, in March this year, Honor launched the MagicBook Pro16 with the blessing of "platform-level AI", and in April this year, Huawei released the new Huawei MateBook X Pro laptop, with a price starting at 11199 yuan. Huawei said that it has deeply empowered Huawei's smart PCs in all scenarios, applied Huawei's Pangu model for the first time, and introduced the first batch of AI model partners such as Baidu Wenxin Yiyan, iFLYTEK Xinghuo, and Zhipu Qingyan. On April 18, Lenovo also released its new AI PC product, which will be on sale before May 20 this year, with prices ranging from 5999 yuan to 17999 yuan.
Among overseas manufacturers, Intel announced the launch of its AI PC acceleration program, Apple launched the M3 MacBook Air, which is known as the "best AI consumer notebook", and Microsoft launched its first AI PC, the Surface Pro 10 Business Edition and Surface Laptop6 Business Edition.
"Making AI ubiquitous will fundamentally change, reshape and rebuild the PC experience," said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel Corporation, at the 10th Lenovo Tech World.
Wu Tingting, an analyst at Shanghai Securities, analyzed in her research report that under the leadership of technology giants, AI has begun to show the potential to subvert terminals, and AI empowerment superimposes the replacement cycle, 2024 may become the first year of AI PC, and AI PC with large model + big data + large computing power is expected to ignite the productivity revolution.
In fact, the global PC shipment data for the first quarter of 2024 released by market research agencies IDC and Canalys respectively shows that the market has begun to recover, and AI PCs are expected to stimulate the demand in the Chinese market. According to IDC, the global PC market has resumed growth after two years of decline, with shipments reaching 59.8 million units in the first quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 1.5%, and the Chinese market is expected to recover in 2024 with the gradual implementation of AI PCs. According to the global PC shipment report released by Canalys for the first quarter of 2024, the total shipments of desktops and laptops reached 57.2 million units, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%, of which Lenovo's shipments increased by 7.8% year-on-year, leading the PC market.
Editor-in-charge: Wang Yunpeng
Proofreader: Wang Jincheng