Apple’s new AI-enabling chip is on the loose

Yesterday, Apple held its Let Loose event, which CEO Tim Cook heralded as "the biggest day for iPad since its introduction."

The event’s main attractions: New versions of the $999 11-inch and $1,299 13-inch iPad Pro with more vibrant OLED displays, and an upgraded iPad Air, which now has a 13-inch screen option to go along with the existing 11-inch version.

But, while the products themselves may have been the main attractions, Cook might as well have yelled “Chips Ahoy!” instead – because the chips behind the devices ended up being yesterday’s biggest stars:

• The newly unveiled iPad Pro is the first Apple product to be powered by the company’s M4 chip – which was designed specifically with AI in mind. It’s less power-hungry and more powerful: Apple says the chip can deliver the same performance as the M2 (currently used in Macs) using half the power, with an improved neural engine capable of performing 38 trillion operations/second.
• The new iPad Air also got a chip upgrade, trading in the M1 for the M2.

Between the lines: Apple has come under pressure from investors to unveil new AI features to compete with OpenAI and Google, at a time when Mac, iPhone, and iPad sales have been dropping.

👀 Looking ahead… Apple will hold its annual World Wide Developer Conference next month, which is expected to provide more insight into the company’s AI ambitions.