Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip leans on AI to supercharge smartphones

Key additions include real-time hardware ray tracing, the ability to sense and optimize different "layers" in your photos, and massive connectivity upgrades whose throughput will likely outpace your home Internet connection. Specifically, AI will be used to power a number of new experiences in Snapdragon-powered phones, which will debut this fall. Smarter cameras will try to interpret what you're shooting and enhance it before you even take the picture, not afterwards, executives said. What Qualcomm now calls an "always sensing" camera will also remain in low-power mode, scanning the world around it; you'll be able to hold up the phone to scan an QR code even if the phone is in standby mode, they said. The phone will also use its AI capabilities to improve cellular connections, as previous phones have done.