A new AI battle is ongoing in the computing space, and Apple might want you to think it is at the forefront of it. In its announcements of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip today, the Cuperito-based company fired some shots at what’s happening with Windows laptops, laying claim that “every Mac is a great platform for AI.”
While it seems like such a vague and strange thing to say about a Mac, Apple wasn’t afraid to go all-in on the details. It went as far as to headline the AI section in today’s MacBook press release as “World’s Best Consumer Laptop for AI.” Apple even mentioned some apparent factors in that marketing decision. The Neural Engine, in Apple Silicon, as well as accelerators in the CPU and the GPU that can boost on-device machine learning and unified memory all got mentioned. Some features in macOS are also apparently powered by AI, as Apple notes:
macOS delivers intelligent features that enhance productivity and creativity, so users can enable powerful camera features, real-time speech to text, translation, text predictions, visual understanding, accessibility features, and much more.
Interestingly, Apple had some shoutouts to an “ecosystem of apps” that have AI features that can leverage the power of the new MacBook Air. It mentioned Goodnotes 6, Pixelmator Pro, and CapCut. Cloud-based solutions like Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, Canva, and Adobe Firefly got shoutouts as well.
Even though Apple isn’t a major player in the AI space yet when compared to Google and Microsoft, this does seem like a big tease for what could be next at the company. The OEMs that make Windows laptops already point out how the NPU in Intel’s new Core Ultra chips can use AI to improve system performance, so it’s not too shocking to see Apple want a piece of the pie, too. As recently as last week, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook mentioned that Apple will “break new ground on AI.” And, we’re hearing rumors that iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will be packed full of AI features.