Embedded deep learning: out of the cloud and onto devices

Loquacious intelligent assistants have become a standard fixture of consumer devices, such as cell phones and smartwatches. These are harbingers of the accelerating osmosis of AI into everyday life. While charming, current implementations are pale imitations of what's coming. With most of the intelligence happening on cloud server farms, today's products are more like a ventriloquist's dummy, parroting responses from the real brains behind the curtain; smart, but limited. The emergence of Face ID, Apple's wondrous new biometric authentication system that uses facial recognition backed by an array of sensors and a new AI-accelerated iPhone SoC, marks the beginning of the second stage of embedded AI in which more of the intelligence happens on the device, independent of the cloud.