Apple may once again collaborate with silicon chip manufacturer TSMC to produce its own AI server processor, according to a leak from Chinese social network Weibo.
Yes, news about Apple’s next step into the world of artificial intelligence tools is brought to you unironically by, MacRumors reports “the Weibo user known as ‘Phone Chip Expert’”, suggesting that the processor will be produced using TSMC’s state-of-the-art 3 nanometer node.
If MacRumors points out that the Weibo user known as Phone Chip Expert has a form, having correctly identified ahead of the formal announcements that the iPhone 7 would be water resistant and that the A16 Bionic chip would be exclusive to the Pro variant of the iPhone 14.
Apple AI advances
The Weibo user known as Phone Chip Expert may be about to strike again with his clairvoyant powers, but it’s unclear when exactly Apple would formally announce, let alone commercially launch, such an AI processor.
In an increasingly AI-crazed world powered by data centers, we’re not surprised that Apple is aiming to be self-sufficient in its cloud computing processes.
Apple is a behemoth big enough to run its own data centers, and as generative AI tools, like Apple’s own upcoming major language model on the device (LLM), which is increasingly trickling down to the B2B and consumer audience, it might as well exercise as much control and oversight as possible over the way that processing takes place.
Clearly Apple has designs in the ‘AI space’ (blech), and supposedly even has credible ideas about it, that could improve our lives, but neither us, nor you, nor the Weibo user known as Phone Chip Expert, will really know what those are. until probably the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.