Google is building its own custom ARM based CPUs to support its AI work and data centers….and introducing a more powerful version of it Tensor Processing Units AI chips. Theverge.com reports that the new Google ARM based CPU is called Axion. It will be used to support Google’s AI workloads before it rolls out to business customers of Google cloud ‘later this year.’ The Axion chips are already powering YouTube ads, the Google Earth Engine, and other Google services. Google won’t be selling these chips to customers, instead making them available for cloud services that businesses can rent and use. 

More about Arm chips. Microsoft is touting its upcoming Windows laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processor as being faster than a MacBook Air with Apple’s latest M3 chip. According to macrumors.com, internal documents say “Microsoft is so confident in these new Qualcomm chips that it’s planning a number of demos that will show how these processors will be faster than an M3 MacBook Air for CPU tasks, AI acceleration, and even app emulation.” The Snapdragon X Elite is ARM based, like Apple silicon. Note that Microsoft is comparing to the low end MacBook Air, and not Apple’s higher end M3 Pro and M3 Max chips. It will be interesting to see when the new Microsoft laptops come out what they do on independent benchmark tests against the Macs. 

It smacks of the old Facebook ‘poke.’ WhatsApp is going to start nudging you to ‘start chatting’ with contacts you have never messaged. Androidpolice.com says this new so-called feature, which just sounds annoying to me, has showed up for some beta users, in version 2.24.9.5. The nudge shows up as ‘suggested contacts.’ The idea is to suggest new people to reach out to that come from the user’s own contact list. It isn’t overbearing about it, fortunately, and should be widely available for Android users soon, should you want to try it. 

Former Apple design guru Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are looking for backing to start a new company that will ‘produce what thy are calling an ‘artificial intelligence powered personal device’. Arstechnica.com reports that The Information picked up the story, but nothing is known so far about the device. Will it be a wearable, something like a smartphone, or maybe even a personal robot assistant? Altman and Ive are trying to raise at least a billion for the new company. A number of big Silicon Valley hitters have already been approached. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.