AI PC? Remind me why I want one… We think of computer memory as bytes on a stick of RAM, but if Barry has his way then future AI PCs will bring a whole new meaning
Barry Collins can vaguely remember that he used to edit PC Pro. Email him at barry@mediabc.co.uk if he’s forgotten to do something. @bazzacollins
For the past few months, I feel like I’ve been living the inverse of Monty Python’s “What have the Romans ever done for us?” sketch. Every time I’ve been at a press conference where a PC manufacturer has launched a new AI PC I’ve asked the question: what’s it going to do for us? The answer: blur the background of our video calls without smashing the granny out of your CPU. Er... that’s it.
Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration. There are practical benefits to having a neural processing unit (NPU) inside your PC today – as you’ll discover in our feature on p28 – but it’s safe to say that the real advantages of AI PCs are yet to reveal themselves. The hardware’s on the market, now the software developers must work out what to do with it. If you’re buying one now, you’re future-proofing yourself for brilliant apps that might take full advantage of that NPU in the next few years, rather than lording it over the plebs that only have a CPU and GPU to play with.
While the PC manufacturers are scrabbling around trying to find reasons to make us buy an AI PC so they can deliver the massive sales uptick they’ve promised their shareholders, I know exactly what I want one to deliver: a safety net for my faltering memory.
Anyone who’s worked with me for any length of time will know my memory’s not the greatest. I’ve never had one of those brains where information just sticks. I always struggled to learn the lines for the school play, was hopeless at memorising chess openings, had to revise harder than anyone I knew to get a decent score in exams.
I’ve always thought it dreadfully unfair that you can’t just swap out parts of human memory in the same way as you can a computer’s. I don’t need to remember my nan’s old phone number or the lyrics to “Agadoo” any more, but I can. Why can’t I overwrite them with my other half’s mobile number, or the category I’m meant to tag my train fare expenses with in Xero? Something that might actually come in useful in 2024?
I’ll tell you what does know this valuable information, and much more besides: my laptop. But dredging that knowledge from storage can be a chore.
To give you a recent example. As I write this, editor Tim’s out in Barcelon
