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Billion-dollar fine against Intel annulled, says EU Court of Justice

October 25, 2024 /

When the European Commission ruled in 2009 that Intel had broken European Union antitrust laws and fined it €1.06 billion (US$1.44 billion at the time), it was just the beginning of a 15-year saga.

That saga ended Thursday with the European Court of Justice dismissing the Commission’s appeal of an earlier judgement against it, and ordering it to pay all costs. Intel is now off the hook for that billion-euro fine, now worth US$1.15 billion at current exchange rates.

The story began with an investigation into alleged anti-competitive practices by Intel that resulted in the 2009 judgement in which the Commission ruled that the company had engaged in practices to exclude competitors from the semiconductor market, citing rebates granted to computer manufacturers on the condition that they buy all or most of their processors from Intel.

In its judgement, the Commission fined Intel €1.06 billion and ordered it to cease the business practices it had deemed illegal at once.

Intel immediately said it would appeal.

In 2014, Intel lost its appeal of the ruling and was ordered by the EU’s General Court to comply with the conditions of the 2009 judgement. However, it had two months to challenge the decision based on points of law, and it duly filed an appeal with the Court of Justice.

In 2017, the Court of Justice tossed out the Commission’s judgement, saying that the General Court did not examine all of Intel’s arguments as it was required to do. “The Court therefore sets aside the judgment of the General Court as a result of that failure in its analysis,” it concluded, referring the case back to the General Court “to examine, in the light of the arguments put forward by Intel, whether the rebates at issue are capable of restricting competition.”

But that wasn’t the end of it.

In 2022, the General Court, after thoroughly reviewing the arguments from both sides, ruled, “the analysis carried out by the Commission is incomplete and, in any event, does not make it possible to establish to the requisite legal standard that the rebates at issue were capable of having, or were likely to have, anticompetitive effects, which is why the General Court annuls the decision.”

Although it only annulled part of its original decision, it concluded that it could not identify how much of the fine relate to that part of the decision, and how much to the part it upheld, and so decided to annul the fine in its entirety.

The Commission was not pleased with this ruling and, supported by the Federal Republic of Germany, appealed.

Which brings us to the current ruling, which eliminated the fine and ordered Germany and the Commission to pay their own costs and those of Intel and its intervenors, the Association for Competitive Technology and the French consumer rights group Union Fédérale des Consommateurs – Que Choisir.

After the decision’s announcement, Intel issued a brief statement, saying “We are pleased with the judgment delivered by the Court of Justice of the European Union today and to finally put this part of the case behind us.”

A good day

While the judgement was good news for Intel, analysts feel that it still isn’t out of the woods.

“Any day when you don’t have to pay a €1.06 billion fine has got to feel like a good day, so for beleaguered tech giant Intel, you’d think this would be an awesome day!” said John Annand, practice lead at Info-Tech Research Group, in an email. “Intel has had a bit of an optics problem lately with persistent chip defects in their high-end processors, disappointing quarterly financials and manufacturing quality control problems plaguing their foundry business. These same fabs [chip fabrication facilities] that Pat Gelsinger has pointed to as the key to Intel’s long-term success and that he’s been so effective at securing US Federal grant money to have them built on American soil. It would be very bad optics indeed if Intel could be seen as using US government grant money to pay a European Union fine.” 

Anshel Sag, VP & principal analyst, Moor Insights & Strategy, also noted that it would have been difficult proving lasting competitive harm.

“While I do believe that European regulators believe they have the consumers best interests in mind, they are at times a bit gung-ho,” Sag said in an email. “I believe that part of the ruling’s purpose was to establish better competition and ensure a more level playing field, and considering the market conditions with AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm giving Intel real competition, it may be harder to prove the lasting harm some of these policies may have caused. That said, it definitely seems interesting that this still was in the courts and has been dragged out so long that the legal fees must be astronomical.”

Although Intel has finally prevailed, Annand said, it still has a long way to go in today’s marketplace.

“It’s not all upside. Intel appealed this decision back in 2009 arguing that the ‘reality of a highly competitive marketplace, characterized by constant innovation, improved product performance and lower prices,’” he said. “How true those words were! Who in 2009 would have foreseen the realities of the current marketplace? Nvidia, Arm, Qualcomm TSMC, even Broadcom, [are] challenging and eclipsing a once perceived monopolistic player.”

CMA probe of Google, Anthropic ‘a precautionary’ move: Analyst

October 24, 2024 /

A move by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to formally launch a probe into Google’s purchase of a $2 billion stake in Anthropic, “sounds like a precautionary investigation across the board to me, primarily due to the fact that the CMA just recently approved Amazon’s Anthropic investment and partnership,” an industry analyst said Thursday.

Scott Bickley, advisory fellow at Info-Tech Research Group, said, “on the surface, the deal with Google seems materially similar in nature. Both Microsoft and Alphabet/Google are now being scrutinized for their respective partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic by the CMA. The inquiry into Google may merit a closer look, however, in light of the DOJ’s recent finding against the company’s anti-competitive practices in the areas of search and advertising.”

The CMA, in a statement released Thursday, indicated that it had obtained “sufficient information” to launch a preliminary investigation into the investment by Google, which was first announced last year and involved an initial investment of $500 million, with the remainder to be invested at a later date.

Once the preliminary investigation is completed, on Dec. 19 the regulator will announce whether or not a more detailed phase 2 probe will take place.

Bickley said he suspects “the CMA would be looking for unfair advantages via the coupling of AI-powered capabilities layered over their existing search capabilities and advertising services, which would further enhance their market dominance. Any finding at this point would be premature, as Alphabet has not implemented services in this manner.”

Last March, Amazon announced it was investing $2.75 billion in Anthropic, bringing its total investment in the AI startup to $4 billion.

As part of this partnership, Anthropic said it would use Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its main cloud provider for key operations, including safety research and the development of foundational models. It will also use AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips for building, training, and deploying future models.

The CMA ruling on that investment was released on Sept. 27 and stated that the regulator does not believe that a “relevant merger situation has been created.”

Phil Brunkard, executive counselor at Info-Tech Research Group UK, said, “both Google and Amazon are trying to compete with OpenAI, but it’s interesting that the CMA is focusing on Google when Amazon was just cleared, which raises some questions about consistency.”

While investigations do create some uncertainty, he said, ”Amazon’s clearance hints that Google could have a similar outcome. It seems the CMA is just being thorough, but these investments will likely continue.”

Brunkard said he sees “a two-horse race” forming: Microsoft/OpenAI vs. Google/Amazon and Anthropic, “though I believe a third player could enhance competition. Despite the hurdles, Big Tech will likely drive ahead, and Google or Amazon backing is a solid sign of Anthropic’s potential. Customer confidence in AI startups is likely to be increasingly shaped by the companies that Big Tech chooses to invest in.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Computer and Communications Industry Association, in a move that was not surprising as the organization is funded by an array of large technology firms, on Thursday criticized the move by the CMA.

Matthew Sinclair, senior director, UK, with the group, said, “another investigation by the competition regulator will create fresh uncertainty for a business that remains a challenger in a dynamic AI sector. Premature competition interventions will make it harder for new AI businesses to collaborate, innovate, and grow.”

The CMA first launched an initial review into the market for AI systems in May 2023, and, in a statement, announced it would focus in on three key areas: how the competitive markets for foundational models and their use could evolve; the opportunities and risks these scenarios could bring for competition and consumer protection; and what guiding principles should be introduced to support competition and protect consumers as AI models develop.

The organization added that the review is in line with the UK government’s aim to support “open, competitive markets.”

White House tells intelligence agencies: Use more AI

October 24, 2024 /

In a first, US President Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued a national security memorandum today telling federal intelligence agencies they need to pilot and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) in an effort to boost the nation’s security.

The memo is directed at the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy and specifically tells the agencies to use AI to track and counter adversaries’ development and use of the technology.

The edict also directs the agencies to ensure AI adoption “reflects democratic values and protects human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and privacy.” The plan is to coordinate efforts with US allies “to ensure the technology is developed and used in ways that adhere to international law while protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Joel Meyer, president of public products at AI services provider Domino Data Lab, said the memo is obviously aimed at preventing US adversaries from achieving “overmatch” by making the integration and application of AI in US military and national security capabilities an urgent priority.

“This memo takes an important step in both accelerating innovation and adoption and in ensuring that use is responsible and governed by putting in place guardrails for how US government agencies can, and just as importantly cannot, use AI,” Meyer said.

For example, Meyer said, the US Navy’s Project AMMO uses AI to support underwater target threat detection and to provide underwater drone operators with feedback data to increase operator confidence. “The [memo] builds a foundation of trust that allows programs like this one to scale by both accelerating innovation and adoption and ensuring that use is responsible and governed,” Meyer said.

The US agencies will also be responsible for increasing the security for, and diversity of, advanced computer chips to power compute-hungry AI models. The CHIPS Act is attempting to increase funding for new fabs and R&D facilities. To date, much of the money has been allocated, but not dispersed to chip makers.

“Our competitors want to upend US AI leadership and have employed economic and technological espionage in efforts to steal US technology,” the memo states. “This [order] makes collection on our competitors’ operations against our AI sector a top-tier intelligence priority, and directs relevant US Government entities to provide AI developers with the timely cybersecurity and counterintelligence information necessary to keep their inventions secure.”

The memo directs actions to improve the security and diversity of chip supply chains, and to ensure that, as the US supports the development of the next generation of government supercomputers and other emerging technology, the nation does so with AI in mind.

The government’s AI efforts will be overseen by the existing AI Safety Institute, which is housed within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD. The White House said it’s the one body staffed by technical experts who understand the quickly evolving technology.

The order also lays out strengthened and streamlined mechanisms for the AI Safety Institute to partner with national security agencies, including the intelligence community, the Defense Department, and the Department of Energy.

Microsoft: Updating Windows 11 will now be faster and easier

October 24, 2024 /

Microsoft recently rolled out Windows 11 version 24H2 and, though there are some bugs in the update, the company is outlining on its Windows IT Pro blog that the management of updates has been significantly improved.

Among other changes the company highlighted, users should find that installing updates is now up to 46% faster; the time required to restart the computer is up to 40% less; and CPU usage should be up to 25% less than in the past.

Microsoft also rolled out various optimizations to Windows 11 that mean the updates do not take up as much storage space as before.

Apple’s shifting Vision Pro priorities

October 24, 2024 /

Reports Apple is closing down Vision Pro production seem counter intuitive, given that in the last few days, Cisco and Vimeo have both released software for the high-tech headset, which is also now being used for pilot training.

At $3,500, the device was never expected to be a mass market product, as Apple CEO Tim Cook agrees. But it certainly continues to make its mark in enterprise computing — as well as offering big promise to entertainment.

The Information has a report in which it claims Apple has told its Vision Pro assembler, Luxshare, that it might need to wind down production in November. The report also cites sources from component suppliers that claim parts production for the device has also been reduced. The implication would suggest Apple thinks it has enough inventory on hand to meet demand, at least for a while.

Are sales slowing? The report suggests maybe, and the data points it provides include:

  • Production scale-backs began this past summer.
  • Enough components have been manufactured to create just over half a million headsets.
  • Some component suppliers ceased production in May.
  • Luxshare makes around 1,000 of the headsets each day, half the production peak.

All in all, the picture painted maintains the narrative we’ve seen since before the launch of Vision Pro — that it’s too expensive for the mass market. But, as Cook said just before the Information was published, Apple knows this already: “At $3,500, it’s not a mass-market product,” he said. “Right now, it’s an early-adopter product. People who want to have tomorrow’s technology today—- that’s who it’s for. Fortunately, there’s enough people who are in that camp that it’s exciting.” 

Who’s excited now?

We know the enterprise market is most excited about the potential of Vision Pro. We’ve heard multiple reports explaining its use in various industries, including during surgery. Just this week, Cisco introduced Cisco Spatial Meetings for the Vision Pro, which builds greatly on the Webex support the company already provides for the Apple product. 

For consumers, Vimeo this week did what YouTube has not, introducing an app that lets its users create, view, and share spatial videos. “This kind of spatial content is the future of storytelling, and we’re proud to be at the forefront of this revolution,” said Vimeo CEO Philip Moyer. 

Apple does seem to have succeeded in igniting interest among some unique usage scenarios. One that most caught my eye this week comes from CAE and is an immersive pilot training app for the device. This app has been designed so pilots can familiarize themselves with in-flight controls before they begin training flights. In recent weeks, we’ve also seen implementations in training, sales and marketing, medicine, engineering and beyond. Those are the people using tomorrow’s technology today at this time. While there are developers, Apple enthusiasts, and bored rich people spending on these devices, the biggest interest in them, as I’ve always said, is coming from the enterprise.

As the recent multi-million-dollar investment in a content delivery network for mass market spatial reality experiences shows, that’s going to change….

Waiting for tomorrow

Apple’s first calendar quarter is traditionally its slowest. With that in mind, it makes sense for Apple to slow manufacturing of its edgiest device in preparation for a muted sales season. Potentially shuttering production in November makes sense through that lens — particularly as Apple is expected to introduce a lower-cost device that also runs visionOS, which is what we’ve all anticipated for months. The Information once again confirms this theory — and also says development of a second generation “Pro” device has been delayed for a year, which was rumored before.

The report, however, also claims Apple might release what is described as an “incremental” updated to Vision Pro with limited changes, “such as a chip upgrade.”

Given the Vision Pro runs an M2 Apple processor, it makes sense to gloss it up a little with an M4, particularly as Apple is likely to introduce new Apple Intelligence features to visionOS next year. But 2025 is also when Apple is expected to introduce a smaller, more compact, and less expensive visionOS-powered system, one that potentially uses an iPhone as the CPU.

In other words, while there’s little doubt that introducing Vision Pro to a world battered by savage conflicts, accelerating energy costs, and political instability means Apple m ight not have met the lofty sales targets it originally aspired to meet, the idea that Apple is abandoning the product is far-fetched.

Production targets may have been lowered for now, but this is only the lull before the rollout of a more affordable product more of us can explore. I expect intimations of this as soon as WWDC 2025. 

Please follow me on LinkedIn, Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill group on MeWe.

Apple’s shifting Vision Pro priorities

October 24, 2024 /

Reports Apple is closing down Vision Pro production seem counter intuitive, given that in the last few days, Cisco and Vimeo have both released software for the high-tech headset, which is also now being used for pilot training.

At $3,500, the device was never expected to be a mass market product, as Apple CEO Tim Cook agrees. But it certainly continues to make its mark in enterprise computing — as well as offering big promise to entertainment.

The Information has a report in which it claims Apple has told its Vision Pro assembler, Luxshare, that it might need to wind down production in November. The report also cites sources from component suppliers that claim parts production for the device has also been reduced. The implication would suggest Apple thinks it has enough inventory on hand to meet demand, at least for a while.

Are sales slowing? The report suggests maybe, and the data points it provides include:

  • Production scale-backs began this past summer.
  • Enough components have been manufactured to create just over half a million headsets.
  • Some component suppliers ceased production in May.
  • Luxshare makes around 1,000 of the headsets each day, half the production peak.

All in all, the picture painted maintains the narrative we’ve seen since before the launch of Vision Pro — that it’s too expensive for the mass market. But, as Cook said just before the Information was published, Apple knows this already: “At $3,500, it’s not a mass-market product,” he said. “Right now, it’s an early-adopter product. People who want to have tomorrow’s technology today—- that’s who it’s for. Fortunately, there’s enough people who are in that camp that it’s exciting.” 

Who’s excited now?

We know the enterprise market is most excited about the potential of Vision Pro. We’ve heard multiple reports explaining its use in various industries, including during surgery. Just this week, Cisco introduced Cisco Spatial Meetings for the Vision Pro, which builds greatly on the Webex support the company already provides for the Apple product. 

For consumers, Vimeo this week did what YouTube has not, introducing an app that lets its users create, view, and share spatial videos. “This kind of spatial content is the future of storytelling, and we’re proud to be at the forefront of this revolution,” said Vimeo CEO Philip Moyer. 

Apple does seem to have succeeded in igniting interest among some unique usage scenarios. One that most caught my eye this week comes from CAE and is an immersive pilot training app for the device. This app has been designed so pilots can familiarize themselves with in-flight controls before they begin training flights. In recent weeks, we’ve also seen implementations in training, sales and marketing, medicine, engineering and beyond. Those are the people using tomorrow’s technology today at this time. While there are developers, Apple enthusiasts, and bored rich people spending on these devices, the biggest interest in them, as I’ve always said, is coming from the enterprise.

As the recent multi-million-dollar investment in a content delivery network for mass market spatial reality experiences shows, that’s going to change….

Waiting for tomorrow

Apple’s first calendar quarter is traditionally its slowest. With that in mind, it makes sense for Apple to slow manufacturing of its edgiest device in preparation for a muted sales season. Potentially shuttering production in November makes sense through that lens — particularly as Apple is expected to introduce a lower-cost device that also runs visionOS, which is what we’ve all anticipated for months. The Information once again confirms this theory — and also says development of a second generation “Pro” device has been delayed for a year, which was rumored before.

The report, however, also claims Apple might release what is described as an “incremental” updated to Vision Pro with limited changes, “such as a chip upgrade.”

Given the Vision Pro runs an M2 Apple processor, it makes sense to gloss it up a little with an M4, particularly as Apple is likely to introduce new Apple Intelligence features to visionOS next year. But 2025 is also when Apple is expected to introduce a smaller, more compact, and less expensive visionOS-powered system, one that potentially uses an iPhone as the CPU.

In other words, while there’s little doubt that introducing Vision Pro to a world battered by savage conflicts, accelerating energy costs, and political instability means Apple m ight not have met the lofty sales targets it originally aspired to meet, the idea that Apple is abandoning the product is far-fetched.

Production targets may have been lowered for now, but this is only the lull before the rollout of a more affordable product more of us can explore. I expect intimations of this as soon as WWDC 2025. 

Please follow me on LinkedIn, Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill group on MeWe.

2025: The year of the AI PC

October 24, 2024 /

As PC, chip, and other component makers unveil products tailored to generative artificial intelligence (genAI) needs on edge devices, users can expect to see far more task automation and copilot-like assistants embedded on desktops and laptops next year.

PC and chip manufacturers — including AMD, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Intel, and Nvidia — have all been touting AI PC innovations to come over the next year or so. Those announcements come during a crucial timeframe for Windows users: Windows 10 will hit its support end of life next October.

Forrester Research defines an AI PC as one that has an embedded AI processor and algorithms specifically designed to improve the experience of AI workloads across the central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), and neural processing unit, or NPU. (NPUs allow the PCs to run AI algorithms at lightning-fast speeds by offloading specific functions.)

“While employees have run AI on client operating systems (OS) for years — think background blur or noise cancellation — most AI processing still happens within cloud services such as Microsoft Teams,” Forrester explained in a report. “AI PCs are now disrupting the cloud-only AI model to bring that processing to local devices running any OS.”

Forrester has tagged 2025 “the Year of the AI PC” — and if the number of recent product announcements is any indication, that’s likely to be the case.

Gartner Research projects PC shipments will grow by 1.6% in 2024 and by 7.7% in 2025. The biggest growth driver will be due, not the arrival of not AI PCs, but to the need by many companies and users to refresh their computers and move toward Windows 11.

“Our assumption is that [AI PCs] will not drive shipment growth, meaning that most end users won’t replace their PCs because they want to have the AI. They will happen to select [an AI PC] if they will replace their PCs for specific reasons — e.g., OS upgrade, aging PCs, or a new school or job, and most importantly, the price is right for them,” said Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa.

The biggest impact of AI PCs on the industry will be revenue growth due to changes in the components, such as adding an NPU core and more considerable memory requirements. AI PCs are also likely to boost application service provider and end-user spending. Gartner predicts end-user spending will rise 5.4% this year and jump 11.6% in 2025, a growth rate that will outpace AI PC shipment growth. 

“In five years, the [AI PC] will become a standard PC configuration, and the majority of PCs will have an NPU core,” Kitagawa said.

Tom Mainelli, an IDC Research group vice president, noted that across the silicon ecosystem there are already systems-on-chips (SoCs) with NPUs from Apple, AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm. “Apple led the charge with its M Series, which has included an NPU since arriving on the Mac in 2020,” he said.

“To date, neither the operating systems — Windows or macOS — nor the apps people use have really leveraged the NPU,” Mainelli said. “But that is beginning to change, and we will see a big upswing in OSes and apps beginning to leverage the benefits of running AI locally, versus in the cloud, as the installed base of systems continues to grow.”

Windows 11 has several genAI features built in, and Apple is slated to roll out “Apple Intelligence” features next week.

Nvidia chips, particularly the company’s GPUs, are already widely used in PCs. They’re popular for gaming, graphic design, video editing, and machine learning applications. Its GeForce series is especially well-known among gamers, while the Quadro and Tesla series are often used in professional and scientific computing. Many PC builders and gamers choose Nvidia processors for their performance and advanced features such as ray tracing and AI-enhanced graphics.

Nvidia isn’t the only manufacturer trying to get into the AI PC game. Samsung Electronics has started mass production of its most powerful SSD for AI PCs — the PM9E1. Intel earlier this year announced its line of “Ultra” chips, which are also aimed at genAI PC operations, and Lenovo just introduced its “Smarter AI” line of tools that include agents and AI assistants across a number of devices. And AMD has touted new CPUs offering greater processing power tailored for AI operations.

“AMD is aggressively pursuing its strategy of being a full-breadth processor provider with a heavy emphasis on the emerging AI market,” said Jack Gold, principal analyst with tech industry research firm J. Gold Associates. “It is successfully positioning itself as an alternative to both Intel and Nvidia, as well as an innovator in its own right.”

Upcoming genAI features need sophisticated hardware

“Leaders foresee many use cases for genAI, from content creation to meeting transcription and code development,” Forrester said in its report. “While corporate-approved genAI apps such as Microsoft Copilot often run as cloud services, running them locally enables them to interact with local hardware, such as cameras and microphones, with less latency.”

For his part, Mainelli will be watching to see how Apple rolls out Apple Intelligence on the Mac — and how users respond to the new features.

Like Microsoft’s cloud-based Copilot chatbot, Apple Intelligence has automated writing tools including rewrite and proofread functionality. The onboard genAI tools can also generate email and document summaries, pull out key points and lists from an article or document, and generate images through the Image Playground app.

“And by the end of this year, we will see Microsoft’s Copilot+ features land on Intel and AMD systems with newer 40-plus TOPS NPUs in addition to systems already shipping with Qualcomm’s silicon,” Mainelli said.

Independent software vendors (ISVs) will also use AI chips to enable new use cases, especially for creative professionals. For example, Audacity — an open-source music production software company — is working with Intel to deliver AI audio production capabilities for musicians, such as text-to-audio creation, instrument separation, and vocal-to-text transcription.

Dedicated AI chipsets are also expected to improve the performance of classic collaboration features, such as background blur and noise, by sharing resources across CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs.

“Upset that your hair never looks right with a blurred background? On-device AI will fix that, rendering a much finer distinction between the subject and the blurred background,” Forrester said. “More importantly, the AI PC will also enable new use cases, such as eye contact correction, portrait blur, auto framing, lighting adjustment, and digital avatars.”

From the cloud to the edge

Experts see AI features and tools moving more to the edge — being embedded on smartphones, laptops and IoT devices — because AI computation is done near the user at the edge of the network, close to where the data is located, rather than centrally in a cloud computing facility or private data center. That means less lag time and better security.

Lenovo, for example, just released AI Now, an AI agent that leverages a local Large Language Model (LLM) built on Meta’s Llama 3, enabling a chatbot that’s able to run on PCs locally without an internet connection. And just last month, HP announced two AI PCs: theOmniBook Ultra Flip 2-in-1 laptop and the HP EliteBook X 14-inch Next-Gen AI laptop. The two PCs come with three engines (CPU, GPU, and NPU) to accelerate AI applications and include either an Intel Core Ultra processor with a dedicated AI engine or an AMD Ryzen PRO NPU processor enabling up to 55 TOPS (tera operations per second) performance.

The HP laptops come with features such as a 9-megapixel AI-enhanced webcam for more accurate presence detection and adaptive dimming, auto audio tuning with AI noise reduction, HP Dynamic Voice Leveling to optimize voice clarity, and AI-enhanced security features.

AI could do for productivity what search engines like Google once did for finding content online changed, according to Gold. “With AI and neural processing units, mundane tasks will get easier, with things like trying to find that email or document I remember creating but can’t figure out where it is,” he said. “It will also make things like videoconferencing much more intuitive and useful as it takes out many of the ‘settings’ we now have to do.”

With the arrival of specific AI “agents,” PC users will soon have the ability to have tasks done for them automatically because the operating system will be much smarter with AI assistance. “[That means] I don’t have to try and find that setting hidden six layers below the OS screen,” Gold said. “In theory, security could also get better as we watch and learn about malware practices and phishing.

“And we can use AI to help with simple tasks like writing better or summarizing the 200 emails I got yesterday I haven’t had time to read,” he said.

Apple, Samsung, and other smartphone and silicon manufacturers are rolling out AI capabilities on their hardware, fundamentally changing the way users interact with edge devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

“While I am very excited to see how the OS vendors and software developers add AI features to existing apps and features, I’m most excited to see how they leverage local AI features to evolve how we interact with our devices and bring to market new experiences that we didn’t know we needed,” Mainelli said.

But caution remains the watchword

Gold cautioned there are also downsides to the sudden arrival of genAI and how quickly the technology continues to evolve.

“With AI looking at or recording everything that we do, is there a privacy concern? And if the data is stored, who has access?” he said. “This is the issue with Microsoft Recall, and it’s very concerning to track everything I do in a database that could be exposed. It also means that if we rely on AI, how do we know the models were properly trained and not making some critical mistakes?”

AI errors and hallucinations remain commonplace, meaning users will have to deal with what corporate IT has been wrestling with for two years.

“On-device generative AI could be susceptible to the same issues we encounter with today’s cloud-based generative AI,” Mainelli said. “Consumer and commercial users will need to weigh the risks of errors and hallucinations against the potential productivity benefits.”

“From the hardware side, more complex processing means we’ll have more ways for the processors to have faults,” Gold added. “This is not just about AI, but as you increase complexity, the chances of something going wrong gets higher. There is also an issue of compatibility. Do software vendors have programs specific to Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Arm? In all likelihood, at least for now, yes they do.”

As genAI tools and features increase, the level of software support will also have to grow — and companies will need to face the possibility of compatibility issues. AI features will also take a lot of processing power, and it’s not clear how heavy use of it on PCs and other devices might affect battery life, Gold noted.

“If I’m doing heavy AI workloads, what does that do to battery life — much like heavy graphics workloads affect battery life dramatically,” he said.

Traditional on-device security might not be able to prevent attacks that target AI applications and tools, which could result in data privacy vulnerabilities. Those cyberattacks can come in a variety of forms: prompt injection, AI model tampering, knowledge base poisoning, data exfiltration, personal data exposure, local file vulnerability, and even the malicious manipulation of specific AI apps.

“Regarding security, AI indeed represents some risk (as is true with any new technology),” Mainelli said, “but I expect it to be mostly positive when it comes to securing the PC. By leveraging the low-power NPU to run security persistently and pervasively on the system, security vendors should be able to use AI to make security less intrusive and bothersome to the end user, which means they’ll be less likely to try to circumvent it.”

Qualcomm’s license battle with Arm puts many AI-enabled Copilot+ PCs in peril

October 23, 2024 /

As its long-running dispute with Arm turned into a war of words this week, the stakes for chip giant Qualcomm and its technology partners, including Microsoft, couldn’t be higher.

Along with MediaTek and Apple, Qualcomm is one of the biggest suppliers of chips for use in smartphones and tablets.  As PCs, smartphones, and automobiles acquire more AI capabilities, the increasingly powerful Snapdragon Elite platform is supposed to be Qualcomm’s big move into those arenas.

Now the dispute with Arm, which has been rumbling on since 2022 over Qualcomm’s right to develop the ARM-based Oryon CPU core in its chips, threatens to derail the whole project. To clarify, ARM is the architecture, Arm is the company.

According to Bloomberg, and independently verified by PC World, Arm recently issued a 60-day notice of cancellation of Qualcomm’s Oryon license.

Disputes over intellectual property (IP) and licensing are common in tech, but the report garnered an unusually spiky response from a Qualcomm spokesperson, which suggests the confrontation might be more serious.

“This is more of the same from Arm — more unfounded threats designed to strongarm a longtime partner, interfere with our performance-leading CPUs, and increase royalty rates regardless of the broad rights under our architecture license.”

According to the spokesperson, the timing of Arm’s move was connected to an impending court date in December.

“Arm’s desperate ploy appears to be an attempt to disrupt the legal process, and its claim for termination is completely baseless. We are confident that Qualcomm’s rights under its agreement with Arm will be affirmed. Arm’s anticompetitive conduct will not be tolerated.”

Of course, it probably didn’t help Qualcomm’s mood that the news emerged smack in the middle of the company’s major Snapdragon Summit 2024, held in Maui this week.

Why does Oryon matter?

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Elite platform comprises four system-on-a-chip (SoC) microprocessors aimed at different market segments: X Elite for Windows PCs, the 8 Elite for smartphones and tablets, the Elite Cockpit for automotive systems, and the Elite Ride for automated driving.

All use ARM-based cores in different configurations: the Oryon CPU as a general microprocessor, the Hexagon neural processing unit (NPU) to accelerate AI capabilities, and the Adreno graphics processing unit (GPU) for graphics.

It is the first of those, the Oryon CPU core originally acquired when Qualcomm bought Nuvia in 2021, that is at the heart of the dispute between the two companies. Arm claims that the agreement it had with Nuvia to develop Oryon did not transfer to Qualcomm, and that any agreements it had with Qualcomm were separate. Buying Nuvia didn’t alter this fact.

Could this affect business PCs?

The dispute is complicated by the involvement of Microsoft, which heads a list of PC makers using Qualcomm’s X Elite platform to push AI-enabled PCs.

That should be good news. After a long dip, the PC market has looked up in the last year, increasing 3.4% year-over-year in Q2 2024, according to figures from Canalys, the third quarter in a row to register growth.

Previous attempts to get Windows running on ARM floundered, but this time Qualcomm has made good with X Elite. Having decided that AI-enabled PCs are a new paradigm, Microsoft will want the dispute to be resolved as soon as possible.

The same goes for Qualcomm’s other PC partners, including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung, all of which have developed models using the same platform. In addition to Microsoft’s Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, models based on X Elite include Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7x 14, HP’s OmniBook X, Acer’s Swift 14 AI, and various laptops in Dell’s XPS, Latitude, and Inspiron ranges.  

All feature Copilot+, each promotes the claimed performance boost and hugely improved battery life of the X Elite, and most are at the more expensive business end of the price charts.

PCs with Intel and AMD processors also qualify as Copilot+ certified, so any failure to resolve the dispute, or defeat for Qualcomm, won’t disrupt AI capabilities from appearing in Windows laptops, but the Oryon core is also used in high-end smartphones and tablets due for release in the coming weeks.

The market assumption is that the companies will resolve the dispute before it reaches court, not least because of the uncertainty its continuation would create for both. That’s how numerous other licensing and IP disputes in tech end up being quietly forgotten.

That didn’t stop the pair’s share prices from taking a dive as news of the squabble’s latest development became public, a sign that some think this dispute is bound to hurt at least one of the companies.

Ericsson’s return-to-office policy is causing trouble

October 23, 2024 /

During the pandemic, working from home was the order of the day at Ericsson. But as employees started to return, it was decided two years ago to have a 50 percent attendance in the office — a policy that was never really followed up, according to Jessica Nygren, vice chairman of the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers’ local branch at Ericsson.

Now the company wants to see more people in the office, and at the end of the summer it announced a new policy: 60 percent attendance.

The company’s press officer Ralf Bagner described it as “a minor adjustment in the guidelines to increase clarity.”

“Today, Ericsson has a hybrid guideline based on the fact that we believe in the human encounter. We also believe that there should be a purpose to where an individual or team chooses to work. This results in an office-first mindset among managers and employees,” he said via email.

Jessica Nygren describes the change very differently.

“The decision came very suddenly, without warning, which meant that many managers took it straight at their word. Every day we see horror examples where managers state that employees should come in three days a week, full days. But it is stated in the policy that it is about 60 percent of the working time over a year, which makes a fairly big difference. To follow it to the letter strangles flexibility,” she said.

Rules without reason

Bagner wrote, “Ericsson’s hybrid guideline has always given every manager, employee and team the opportunity to work in dialogue on how and where they work best and that everyone understands the importance and benefits of meeting, from an individual and team perspective, and from a social and cultural perspective.”

But this is not what it looks like in practice, according to the union.

“We also believe that the company needs a greater presence in the office — developers need to brainstorm to find new products going forward — but no motive has been presented for us to use this particular model.

As it looks now, many are in a bind according to Jessica Nygren. Some of the employees come from other locations where Ericsson has previously had operations that have downsized or disappeared. They have then been offered a position in Kista but have remained in Örebro or Gävle. Now they are suddenly required to commute five, six hours a day, three days a week.

And when they arrive, the office may be full already.

“If you’ve been commuting for several hours, you want an adequate workplace: We’re supposed to be inside 60 percent of the time, but there are only seats for 50 percent of the staff, so you have to puzzle. In some places there is a lot of space left, in others not. Yesterday, for example, two of my colleagues sat in the toilet and took meetings because there was no room. Others go out and get in the car,” she says.

Not opposed

At the same time, Jessica Nygren emphasizes that the union is not against more people coming into the office, but that it is a process that should be allowed to take some time and be better adapted to different individuals.

“If we had been told that they wanted to increase the presence in the offices, we would have given the thumbs up. But then perhaps they should have announced that it would be launched after the turn of the year and that they took in feedback in the meantime. Are there parking spaces? What is commuting? How can we attract people — instead of with “push” as today, it would be better with “pull”.

Managers should also avoid having a harsh policy imposed on them and be able to decide what works in their particular work group, according to Jessica Nygren — someone may need to be in the office for more than three days while someone else can work more from home.

From the union’s side, however, they think they have a good dialogue with CEO Börje Ekholm, who has clarified in his weekly newsletters that “one size” does not fit all.

“Now the company management just has to get the other managers to understand it — as it looks now, the employees do not feel safe and they do not feel welcome in the office in cases where they are squeezed by the new policy,” says Jessica Nygren.

Cisco’s new AI agents and assistants aim to ease customer service headaches

October 23, 2024 /

Even in today’s modern age, call center customer service continues to be a nightmare. Wait times can be long, customers get frustrated when caught in loops with limited and robotic chatbots, human agents are overworked and don’t always have the visibility into information they need, calls are dropped, information is lost … and the list goes on.

But AI agents are growing ever more sophisticated, showing promise in nearly every area of the enterprise, including customer service.

Cisco is angling to be a leader in AI-powered call center support, and Wednesday at its WebexOne 2024 event, it announced new Webex AI agents and assistants that will work alongside humans to streamline processes and address common headaches and snag points.

“In this age of AI, there’s one belief that we hold close to our hearts, and that is the value of human interaction,” Anurag Dhingra, SVP and GM of Cisco collaboration, said in a pre-briefing. “Experiences matter, and in fact matter more in the age of AI.”

AI helping humans

Over the last 18 to 24 months, Cisco has been working to improve the support experience for both customers and employees, said Dhingra. He pointed to a survey the company did with 1,000 customer experience leaders in 12 industries and 10 global markets. More than half of respondents (60%) said self-service isn’t working, and 60% also reported that human agents are overworked. Further, customer experience leaders reported that 1 out of 3 of those agents lack the customer context needed to deliver the best possible customer experiences.

“A lot of this is rooted in fragmented and siloed investments,” he said (indeed, 88% of respondents to the Cisco survey reported technology siloes).

Webex AI Agent, available in early 2025, will bring together conversational intelligence with generative AI to help improve self-service. Dhingra pointed out that, while customers want self-service, 55% avoid it because they find it “rigid and unhelpful.”

Existing AI bots “tend to be scripted, robotic, quite limited in what they can do,” said Dhingra.

The AI Agent platform will include a new design tool, AI Agent Studio, which allows contact centers to build, customize, and deploy voice or digital agents in minutes, choosing the model of their choice, Cisco said. This could help improve customer interactions and resolve issues more quickly and easily.

Dhingra pointed out that well-functioning self-service options can result in a 39% improvement in customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores. Furthermore, predicted Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s EVP and chief product officer, in the near future, 90% to 95% of customer calls will be handled by automated agents. But, he said, “it won’t feel like you’re talking to a robot, it will feel like you’re talking to a human being.”

Human interaction still critical

However, Dhingra pointed out, “there is no substitute for humans; sometimes customers need to talk to humans.”

AI Assistant for Webex Contact Center (to be generally available in Q1 2025) will work alongside humans to quickly supply information. New tools will include:

  • Suggested responses that appear directly in the platform.
  • Context summaries that help facilitate handoffs from AI to human agents. Necessary background information is included to get the human agent up to speed and eliminate the need for customers to repeat themselves.
  • Dropped call summaries: All interactions are captured and documented so that agents and customers can pick up where they left off when a call is resumed.
  • Automatic CSAT scoring based on data and transcripts of customer interactions.

In addition, to support overworked humans, Cisco plans to release an agent wellness platform that will schedule automatic breaks and shift which channels agents support to increase or decrease capacity based on need.

“It’s around helping humans,” said Dhingra.

Able to pivot, understand limitations

Prior to launch, Cisco is performing an internal pilot of Webex AI Agent in its human resources department. In a demo video shared by Dhingra, a worker interacted on her phone with an AI agent and asked the agent to book time off for her in Workday. The agent asked how many days off she was planning to take, and when, then booked it.

The worker then asked the AI agent to send her a new laptop, to which it replied: “I’m sorry but this is not something I’ve been trained on. I’m still learning as an AI agent, thanks for your understanding. If you need a new laptop, please contact your IT support team.”

This ability of AI to understand its limitations is critical, said Dhingra. “There are guardrails in place to stop it from going off rails.”

In the demo, the employee also interrupted the agent a few times, asking one question, then quickly switching to another. After a quick pause, the agent was able to switch gears. “[The employee] pivoted, asked about one thing, before an answer was given, she changed gears,” said Dhingra. “The AI agent was able to deal with that quite effectively.”

Further, he pointed out, the voice was “a lot more natural sounding, not as robotic as it has been in the past.”

Responsible AI ‘table stakes’

Responsible AI is top of mind for nearly every enterprise leader today, and Dhingra explained that Cisco has developed a set of principles it uses to review its AI systems, looking at transparency, fairness, accountability, reliability, security, and privacy.

The goal is to provide customers with information on how the models work and how they were trained, to “describe how the AI works under the covers,” he said. “We break down our responsible AI by use cases.”

Customers can also provide feedback that Cisco treats “just like security incidents,” he said. If a customer flags an issue, there is what he called an “urgent process in place” that will look into it.

“I do think this is table stakes for everyone right now,” said Dhingra.