As AI moves to the chip, mobile devices are about to get much smarter

The branch of artificial intelligence called deep learning has given us new wonders such as self-driving cars and instant language translation on our phones. Now it's about to injects smarts into every other object imaginable. That's because makers of silicon processors from giants such as Intel Corp. and Qualcomm Technologies Inc. as well as a raft of smaller companies are starting to embed deep learning software into their chips, particularly for mobile vision applications. In fairly short order, that's likely to lead to much smarter phones, drones, robots, cameras, wearables and more. "Consumers will be genuinely amazed at the capabilities of these devices," said Cormac Brick, vice president of machine learning for Movidius Ltd., a maker of vision processor chips in San Mateo, Calif.