After this week, there’s no question about it: AI will definitely be a big part of the future of PCs.

That was shouted loud and clear during Microsoft’s Surface event on Thursday, where the company spent the entire keynote talking about how AI will make Windows 11 smarter, make Office smarter, and make the Surface Laptop Studio 2 better.

But while software will determine the AI PC’s future, it’s just part of the equation. This week, Intel formally unveiled its radically reconstructed, AI-infused Core Ultra processors, built using the Meteor Lake architecture. These mix-and-match chips were built from the ground up with AI in mind, and Intel is also providing plenty of API and framework support for developers to create applications that leverage Core Ultra’s hardware to unlock new AI possibilities right on your PC, not in the cloud.

PCWorld’s Adam Patrick Murray attended Intel Innovation this week and got to go hands-on with several Core Ultra laptops running a variety of AI tasks with surprisingly practical results. Check it out in the video below.

There are already a bunch of free AI tools than run locally on your PC, but with Intel and Microsoft seemingly joining forces in a concerted push this week – and AMD already weaving an AI engine into its Ryzen 7040U laptop chips – it’s clear that the PC’s AI era is only getting started.

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Author: Brad Chacos, Executive editor

Brad Chacos spends his days digging through desktop PCs and tweeting too much. He specializes in graphics cards and gaming, but covers everything from security to Windows tips and all manner of PC hardware.