iPhone 16 Pro to boost on-device AI with new A18 Pro chip

This year’s iPhone 16 series will bring new on-device Artificial Intelligence (AI) features supported by a brand new A18 Pro chipset says Haitong International Tech Researcher Jeff Pu.

The researcher revealed that the A18 Pro chip will focus on providing sufficient power for on-device AI tasks.

It’s said that the A18 Pro chip will house a larger die area in the wafer compared to the A17 Pro chip. This area has been improved to expand AI technologies.

An expansion in the die area allows to increase transistors which is the biggest advantage to achieve performance and power efficiency.

It also means that the designer could house more technologies core to a certain aspect of the device. Larger die also generate less heat and could lead to better heat dissipation. One of the major drawbacks of large die includes increased manufacturing costs.

Smartphone and smart device makers are shifting their strategies around generative AI technologies. This allows them to integrate automated features to improve the user experience.

Apple is already in talks with Google and OpenAI to use their generative AI tech in this year’s iPhone. The company may introduce the new AI capabilities with iOS 18 at the WWDC developer conference around the first half.

If finalized, one of these AI companies will provide a complete cloud-based AI processing solution for iPhones. Apple on the other hand will invest in its resources to support on-device AI features.

An improved AI architecture will allow A18 Pro to empower native app features such as fast global search in the spotlight with different types of search results.

That could be an example of how the new on-device AI would perform on the iPhone. The Cloud-based AI on the other hand is likely to handle internet and generative AI stuff.

The insight from Pu concludes that only the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will streamline major AI technologies.

(source – 9to5mac)