Published on October 26th, 2023
Google and Qualcomm have formed a strategic partnership aimed at bringing advanced generative AI experiences to Android smartphones.
This collaboration was revealed during the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, demonstrating a commitment to enhancing on-device AI capabilities on Android devices.
A key element of this collaboration involves leveraging Google’s cutting-edge foundational AI models, which are instrumental in powering features such as on-device recorder summaries, Smart Reply in Gboard, and the upcoming Video Boost feature on devices like the Pixel 8 Pro.
The innovation behind this partnership lies in the adaptation of Google’s AI models to run on Qualcomm’s Hexagon Neural Processing Unit (NPU) within the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
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This integration allows more Android devices to execute on-device AI tasks, offering a multitude of benefits, including the introduction of new features, improved performance, and energy efficiency.
During the announcement, Alex Katouzian, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile, Compute, and XR at Qualcomm, highlighted that Google’s generative AI models would be among the first to operate on Snapdragon chips.
Google’s research team has been working diligently to distill their massive next-generation language models to make them suitable for mobile devices.
This development will empower users to perform a wider range of on-device tasks using Google applications, minimizing the reliance on internet connectivity and the need for data to be sent back and forth to cloud servers.
Dave Burke, Google’s Vice President of Engineering for Android, also emphasized the partnership’s significance during the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 launch event.
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He confirmed that Android flagship phones in the near future would be capable of running complex AI models on-device, eliminating the need for continuous internet connectivity and cloud processing.
In essence, this collaboration heralds a new era of enhanced AI processing on premium Android smartphones equipped with the latest Snapdragon chips.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, for example, boasts support for large language models with over 10 billion parameters, operating at an impressive speed of almost 15 tokens per second.
This advanced processing capability promises to deliver smarter and faster AI experiences to users. Qualcomm also provided a glimpse of what to expect from its next flagship processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, during the event, further underlining the commitment to advancing AI capabilities in Android devices.
Feature Image Source: Daniel Romero
