Taiwan Chipmaker MediaTek Deepens Investment in Artificial Intelligence

MediaTek, a Taiwanese mobile phone chip developer, is launching artificial intelligence-enabled processors in the first half of the year to meet market demand.

According to a Business Next report February 23, Mediatek intends to release its own artificial intelligence (AI) platform, NeuroPilot. A platform refers to technologies designed to work together or with other applications. It can mean in its basest form computer hardware and the software that it’s designed to operate.

For Mediatek, such a platform would include chips that act as AI processing units and software development kits to aid integration of hardware and software.

MediaTek’s recent moves indicates it intends to join the latest technology battleground as companies in multiple countries compete to perfect related hardware and software.

Mobile device voice-activated assistants such as Siri, Cortana and Alexa are everyday examples of AI in action as they alter human-machine interface.

Competitive industry

AI programming differs from other code as it seeks to make the most of what it can learn from human users of devices where it is installed. Computers are supposed to make automated decisions via a neural network patterned upon the human brain.

The newness of AI has created many upstarts striving to become an industry standard. Nearly a dozen such deep learning frameworks exist, many of which are backed by rival tech giants.

Open Neural Network Exchange, or ONNX, was launched in 2017 to allow different deep learning frameworks to become compatible and interchangeable. By introducing common standards, AI developers can reduce complexity of the development process, speeding up commercialization.

Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft back ONNX. Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, NVIDIA, ARM and Huawei had begun using it at the start of the year, as well.

But Google has yet to back it, preferring instead a rival called TensorFlow. Its pick leaves the AI field fragmented and forces adopters to choose sides.

Mediatek picks AI standard backed by Amazon, Microsoft

MediaTek announced February 22 that it would support ONNX.

Jerry Yu, corporate vice president and general manager of MediaTek’s Home Entertainment Business Group, told Business Next February 23 he chose it to create an open and flexible AI platform that would better integrate hardware with software.

MediaTek’s pursuit of AI includes new chipset designs for operations that typically require cell phones and higher-end cameras that connect to the cloud to handle AI functions such as voice recognition.

The company says it is also developing software based on open standards like ONNX to let developers create applications that work with MediaTek chipsets.

〔Original :Meet Startup @TW〕
https://meet.bnext.com.tw/intl/articles/view/42482