1 min readHP is the latest PC maker to jump aboard the bandwagon and put all its chips on generative AI.
Speaking at the Sydney launch of the company’s latest lot of consumer and business laptops, HP’s “AI Compute Evangelist” Mark Fenson was quick to frame the recent explosion of interest in generative AI within a larger context.
According to him, the long and winding path that led to this first wave of AI PCs stretches as far back as the 1950s.
Advancements in machine and deep learning built on this foundation in the decades that followed. However, those waves feel like distant ripples compared to the AI moment prompted by the popularity of ChatGPT.
Of course, the key thing that version of history leaves out is the sudden crash in investment and interest between each big breakthrough.
Commonly referred to as "AI winters", these downturns saw a complete collapse in investment in the sector following widespread disillusionment with its inability to deliver on its lofty promises. The last one was so bad that academics started inventing new terms to distance themselves from the negative reputation attached to AI.
Asked by Reviews.org what signs the company is seeing that another AI winter isn’t on the horizon, Fenson emphasised the democratisation of modern generative AI as a key point of difference.
Even if the story remains one dominated by global giants like Microsoft and Google, the technology itself isn’t as concentrated in as few hands as it was in the 1980s and 1990s.
“Everyone’s now learning to code, students are learning to code, and everyone’s starting to become computer literate in AI. That’s a big difference. You’re giving the power to the masses. It’s not just being kept for the few. It’s going out everywhere.”
