Chips to perform AI inference on edge devices such as smartphones is a red-hot market, even years into the field's emergence, attracting more and more startups and more and more venture funding, according to a prominent chip analyst firm covering the field. "There are more new startups continuing to come out, and continuing to try to differentiate," says Mike Demler, Senior Analyst with The Linley Group, which publishes the widely read Microprocessor Report, in an interview with ZDNet via phone. Linley Group produces two conferences each year in Silicon Valley hosting numerous startups, the Spring and Fall Processor Forum, with an emphasis in recent years on those AI startups. At the most recent event, held in October, both virtually and in-person, in Santa Clara, California, the conference was packed with startups such Flex Logix, Hailo Technologies, Roviero, BrainChip, Syntiant, Untether AI, Expedera, and Deep AI giving short talks about their chip designs. Demler and team regularly assemble a research report titled the Guide to Processors for Deep Learning, the latest version of which is expected out this month.

Samsung is using artificial intelligence to automate the insanely complex and subtle process of designing cutting-edge computer chips. The South Korean giant is one of the first chipmakers to use AI to create its chips. Samsung is using AI features in new software from Synopsys, a leading chip design software firm used by many companies. "What you're seeing here is the first of a real commercial processor design with AI," says Aart de Geus, the chairman and co-CEO of Synopsys. Others, including Google and Nvidia, have talked about designing chips with AI.

Robocars will not be accident-free. For regulators who harbor hopes of fostering a future of autonomous vehicles (AVs), this is a political reality that's likely to haunt them. For the public, it's a psychologically untenable prospect, especially if a robocar happens to flatten a loved one. From a technological standpoint, though, this inevitability is the starting point for engineers who want to develop safer AVs. "The safest human driver in the world is the one who never drives," said Jack Weast, Intel's senior principal engineer and Mobileye's vice president for autonomous vehicle standards.

If you've never seen or been near (or inside) a self-driving car, the concept can seem a bit much. But the thing is, autonomous vehicle technology is already all over: in many of our human-controlled cars, on the road in driverless shuttles and vans, and coming from self-driving companies like Alphabet's Waymo, GM-funded Cruise, Amazon-backed Aurora, and Uber. Even if it sounds like a far-off, far-fetched, futuristic proposition, self-driving cars aren't sci-fi. Engineering simulation software company Ansys surveyed more than 22,000 adults from the U.S., UK, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Japan, China, India, and other regions, about self-driving perceptions. The survey, out last week, found that older adults are less optimistic than younger adults about ever riding in a robocar.

If you've never seen or been near (or inside) a self-driving car, the concept can seem a bit much. But the thing is, autonomous vehicle technology is already all over: in many of our human-controlled cars, on the road in driverless shuttles and vans, and coming from self-driving companies like Alphabet's Waymo, GM-funded Cruise, Amazon-backed Aurora, and Uber. Even if it sounds like a far-off, far-fetched, futuristic proposition, self-driving cars aren't sci-fi. Engineering simulation software company Ansys surveyed more than 22,000 adults from the U.S., UK, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Japan, China, and India about self-driving perceptions. The survey, out last week, found that older adults are less optimistic than younger adults about ever riding in a robocar.

It might not be too long before your average mobile PC will feature -- on its motherboard -- not just CPUs and GPUs but also an embedded AI inference chip, like the Intel/Movidius Vision Processor Unit (VPU). The first clue for this scenario unfolded in Microsoft Corp.'s launch announcement today, at its Windows Developer Day, of Windows ML, an open-standard framework for machine-learning tasks in the Windows OS. Microsoft said that it is extending Windows OS native support for the Intel/Movidius VPU. Implied in the message is that Intel/Movidius has taken a step closer to finding a home not just in embedded applications, such as drones and surveillance cameras, but also in Windows-based laptops and tablets. In a telephone interview with EE Times, Gary Brown, director of marketing at Movidius/Intel, confirmed, "Although today's announcement isn't about that [VPU integration on a mobile PC], yes, you will see VPU migrating into a PC motherboard."