Here's Why Microsoft Is Making Its Own AI Chip for Hololens

Here’s Why Microsoft Is Making Its Own AI Chip for Hololens

This week, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stepped further into the artificial intelligence (AI) market when the company said that its next version of its augmented reality glasses, called Hololens, will come with an AI coprocessor.It might not seem like that big of a deal at face value. After all, the first version of Hololens isn’t exactly an integral part of the company’s business — it’s only available to developers right now — but the announcement is more of a bet on Microsoft’s potential in the broader AI market. Simply put, Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) already have, or are working on, their own AI chips and Microsoft can’t afford to be left behind. Image source: Getty Images. Keeping up with the Joneses Microsoft’s new AI chip is focused on processing images and understanding text. Those are two very important aspects for an AI system because, just like for people, images and speech provide lots of contextual information. The company’s AI processor will work alongside Microsoft’s Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) and will help process information on the device faster, and with less battery drain, than off-loading it to cloud-based servers.  Aside from these benefits for Hololens, the AI coprocessor helps Microsoft keep…


Link to Full Article: Here’s Why Microsoft Is Making Its Own AI Chip for Hololens