Hardware with artificial intelligence capabilities is slowly gaining ground in the computing world. The Meteor Lake processors were the first from Intel to have an NPU, neural processing unit specialized in artificial intelligence, although AMD arrived first with its APUs, which also had a solution of this type.

The commitment to accelerated AI at the hardware level has been a reality for some time, and we have many examples. In the mainstream consumer market, NVIDIA and its tensor cores are undoubtedly one of the best exponents, but If we talk about NPUs, their arrival on PC is relatively recent. and that he still has a long way to go and many promises to fulfill.

As I explained to you at the time, the integration of the NPU into current processors has had a significant impact on their development, as this component makes its design more complex, takes up important space at the silicon level, and also increases production costs, which translates into a more expensive selling price.

This reality led TechPowerUp to conduct a very interesting survey where they asked their readers If they were willing to pay more money in exchange for using the generative AI functions that the current NPU allows. The response was overwhelming, with the 26,257 votes cast divided as follows:

• 7.4% (1,937 votes) said they would accept more for these new features.
• 84% (22,057 votes) said they would not accept the payment.
• 8.6% (2,263 votes) said they were unsure.

There is generally a head-on rejection of NPUs and the generative features of the second-generation AI we’re in, and the truth is, I understand that because I believe promises have been made that haven’t been fulfilled yet, and because many see generative artificial intelligence as a simple image generator which is not even able to work really optimally.

As I said, AI applied to consumer computing still has a long way to go and many promises to keep, and the data from this survey just proves me right. However, even in its current state it is This can be very useful for certain professional profiles, and offers interesting value. For example, image generation has helped me a lot with content creation and allowed me to be more productive and independent.

AI generated images.