The quest for edge AI seems central to Apple’s future approach, and to support it the company will consider the acquisition of smaller AI firms who can deliver optimized, compressed AI models. The company also intends to work with third-party models to shrink and adapt them to work more fully on Apple’s hardware.
Doing so is important, as the more intelligence Apple can put at the edge, the more it can reduce demand on hosted cloud-based AI, which will reduce infrastructure costs. A second advantage is that enabling on-device AI makes it possible to build and introduce a wide number of AI-augmented products.
An AI pin from Apple?
One such product could arrive this time next year. The Information shares a report that hints at the extent to which AI at Apple may inform the company’s future product releases. It claims Apple intends to release an AirTag-sized smart AI device in 2027. (The concept sounds remarkably like Humane’s discontinued AI pin.)
