AMD announced four new processors within its Ryzen Mobile 7040 series, taking more steps toward what AMD believes will eventually be a future full of artificial intelligence-enhanced PCs powered by its XDNA AI architecture. Two of these new chips include Ryzen AI, hardware AI logic supported by new instructions. That said, you'll want to buy laptops based upon new chips for what they can deliver now, more than for their potential for AI in the future. And AMD's latest laptop processors look to pack plenty of punch. These new 7040U processors wield not only AMD's latest Zen 4 compute cores, but also powerful integrated Radeon graphics based on the same RDNA 3 architecture found in the latest and greatest Radeon graphics cards.

Intel envisions a future where your PC will simply anticipate your habits and act accordingly. But it's not clear when that future will arrive, how realistic that vision will be, or whether consumers will tolerate a computer that predicts your every move. What we know is this: Intel's building a future version of its tiny desktop PCs, the NUCs, with Amazon's Alexa assistant built in. The Intel "Bean Canyon" NUC--Bean for "coffee bean," or the "Coffee Lake" chip built inside of it--will arrive later this year. Meanwhile, Intel is adapting its Movidius chips into "AI chips" that will power these intelligent, future experiences.

Microsoft is using artificial intelligence and Windows Machine Learning (ML) to improve its products, including Office 365. During the third Build keynote, corporate vice president of the Windows Developer Platform Kevin Gallo used Microsoft Word as an example, stating that the company's goal is to make everyone a better writer. How? Through grammar checking powered by Windows ML and artificial intelligence. "Some areas are very, very hard to detect with traditional algorithms," he said. "For example, you get into a car, but onto a train. There is a shadow on the road versus there is fog on the road."

Microsoft is using machine learning to make its Windows apps a lot smarter. At a Technology Sneak Peek on Monday at Microsoft's Build developer conference in Seattle, executives used Windows Ink to demonstrate the potential of Windows ML, a machine learning API that debuted in the April 2018 Update to Windows 10. Because Windows ML is an API, regular users will never encounter it. But the API provides the framework for developers to tap the power of your CPU or GPU to anticipate and act upon your needs, in Windows and Windows apps. The executives at the demo made it clear that the Ink features they were showing off could drastically change, or might never be released at all. Still, the future they showed moves a few steps forward from the way Windows works today.

Fresh off of Windows 10's major April update, Microsoft is gearing up for its Build conference in Seattle Monday. The annual event, like Google I/O (which starts just one day later), is a celebration of the company's developer community. That means you can expect plenty of technical details and (gasp) on-stage coding during the two keynotes, which will be led by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and operating systems head Joe Belfiore. But of course, we'll also hear more about the company's broader goals for the next year, and we'll get a first look at new features for Windows, Office and the rest of its product line. Here's a brief glimpse at what we expect to see.

The next Windows 10 update opens the way for the integration of artificial intelligence within Windows applications, directly impacting hundreds of millions of devices from Windows PCs and tablets to IoT Edge devices. The new version of the Windows ML platform allows developers to integrate pre-trained deep-learning models within their applications directly in Visual Studio. The models must be converted into the Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) format before importing into VS tools. ONNX is an open-source machine-learning framework launched by Microsoft and Facebook in September 2017, later joined by AWS. ONNX enables portability between neural-network frameworks, making it possible for models trained with tools like Pytorch, Apache MxNet, caffe2 or Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (CNTK) to be translated to ONNX and later implemented in Windows applications.

Microsoft wants your PC's hardware to get smart--and your gaming foes to become even more devious. Earlier this month, the company revealed Windows ML, an API that taps into your computer's CPU and GPU to bolster your software with machine learning capabilities. At GDC 2018 on Monday, Microsoft explained how Windows ML can benefit video games, and introduced new "DirectML" tools that provide GPU hardware acceleration for games that use WinML, built on the same no-hassle-for-gamers principles as the DirectX standard. What does it all mean? Machine learning can make games prettier, more adaptable to individual playstyles, and easier to create, Microsoft says.

Microsoft is planning to include more artificial intelligence capabilities inside Windows 10 soon. The software giant is unveiling a new AI platform, Windows ML, for developers today, that will be available in the next major Windows 10 update available this spring. Microsoft's new platform will enable all developers that create apps on Windows 10 to leverage existing pre-trained machine learning models in apps. Windows ML will enable developers to create more powerful apps for consumers running Windows 10. Developers will be able to import existing learning models from different AI platforms and run them locally on PCs and devices running Windows 10, speeding up real-time analysis of local data like images or video, or even improving background tasks like indexing files for quick search inside apps.

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."

During the Windows Developer Day event yesterday, Microsoft revealed the Windows AI platform which will allow developers to build intelligent apps on Windows 10. One of the highlighted features of WinML APIs is the support for pre-trained machine learning models. Windows ML will efficiently use hardware for any given artificial intelligence (AI) workload and intelligently distributes work across multiple hardware types including CPU, GPU and Intel's Vision Processing Units (VPU). The Intel VPU is a purpose-built chip for accelerating AI workloads on client devices. Myriad X is world's first system-on-chip (SOC) shipping with a dedicated Neural Compute Engine for accelerating deep learning inferences at the edge.