300 Million Smartphones Expected to Have Machine Learning Ability this Year

Staff Writer January 11, 2017

Less than a minute

New processors in the next batch of smartphones will enable native machine learning to some degree to make devices smarter even when they aren't connnected. Image Credit: NetDoctor

According to Deloitte, more than 300 million smartphones, or a fifth of units sold this year, will have neural network and machine learning functions.

This Artificial Intelligence (A.I) will be used to for everything from indoor navigation to image classification to augmented reality and speech recognition.

In addition, Deloitte said that these tools won’t necessarily need to be connected. “On-board machine learning may allow tasks to be done better and faster, or with more privacy,” said Deloitte in its Global Predictions 2017 report.

Deloitte’s report covered a few bases, but the one revolving around machine learning is among the most certain. For instance, Huawei announced a smartphone with Amazon’s Alexa. Android has machine learning built in. And digital assistants abound.

Some devices were capable of machine learning in 2016, but most of the computing was handled in the cloud. What will change in 2017 is that faster processors will enable machine learning natively. Deloitte said smartphones will be just the first wave of machine learning on the go.

source: Zdnet and Deloitte