[Exclusive] Snapdragon Chipsets Ready to Offer Apple-Like ChatGPT Integration, Says Qualcomm CMO Don McGuire
Qualcomm CMO Don McGuire says Snapdragon chipsets can already handle Meta’s Llama, Google Gemini, and ChatGPT.
Photo Credit: Reuters
Qualcomm CMO Don McGuire also appreciated Apple for building on-device AI capabilities
Highlights
- McGuire said the homegrown NPUs allow the company to better optimise LLMs
- McGuire said the Snapdragon SoC has integrated AI for more than a decade
- The Qualcomm CMO said the company has a democratised approach towards AI
Snapdragon chipsets are among the first to offer generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to Android smartphones (second only to Google’s Tensor SoC). The Samsung Galaxy S24 series became the first non-Pixel Android smartphone, equipped with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, to offer AI features with Galaxy AI. However, at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024, Apple raised the stakes when it announced the OS-level integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT on the iPhone. In a conversation with Gadgets 360, Qualcomm’s Chief Marketing Officer Don McGuire said that the Snapdragon platform is ready to offer on-device LLM capabilities to Android smartphones.
Qualcomm CMO Don McGuire on Snapdragon chipsets' AI capabilities
When asked if Snapdragon chipsets can offer an OS-level integration of a large language model (LLM), McGuire said, “We can already do that today. We can already support Meta’s LLMs, we can already support Gemini, and we can already support OpenAI’s LLMs. We can already support the different models from AI hyperscalers on the Snapdragon platform.”
Don McGuire, CMO, Qualcomm
Photo Credit: X/@donnymac (Don McGuire)
The Qualcomm executive also highlighted that Snapdragon chipsets are ready to handle these LLMs because the company has been working with AI technology for almost 12 years. It has also developed its neural processing unit (NPU) in-house, which allowed the tech giant to optimise these features to run efficiently.
On the difference in approach between Appleand Qualcomm
“Basically, what Apple has done is that they have outsourced their AI to OpenAI. Now, they will have to go to Google and ask how we bring Gemini into this. They will eventually have to support all these different LLMs. So, it is a good start,” added McGuire.
McGuire also stated that Apple's approach was similar to what Qualcomm has been doing for the last decade, which is to build on-device AI capabilities. “It is good to have that alignment from an ecosystem perspective,” he said.
However, the Qualcomm CMO emphasised that the company did not follow Apple’s approach since it has been working with AI for more than a decade and has built a solid foundation to handle tasks requiring high processing power. As a result, it can now offer these capabilities to smartphone makers when they want to onboard an LLM. “We have a democratised approach that is much broader than a vertical walled garden approach,” McGuire added.
McGuire also explained the reason behind Qualcomm's open ecosystem approach and said, “We have always believed in democratisation of technology so it is not foreign that that's the way we have set things up. But when you're dealing with a closed ecosystem in a vertical model, there is only room for one thing at a time.”
- Qualcomm’s AI Models Are Now Available to All App Developers
- Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Chipset to Be Unveiled in October
- With Snapdragon X Elite, Qualcomm Looks to Break Intel, AMD’s PC Hegemony
“It is telling that when one of the biggest brands of devices that consumers use has finally recognised that this is important and that they have to bring a solution to the table,” he added.
Is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 the best foldable phone you can buy in India right now? We discuss the company's new clamshell-style foldable handset on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details.