The rapid pace of technological advancements in AI has accelerated tech development, leading to significant shifts in personal computers—including the rise of the AI PC. Amidst this transformation, many questions arise about how AI will impact the workplace. Despite concerns, the potential benefits are undeniable: increased productivity and creativity while freeing up time for personal pursuits make a compelling case. When harnessed responsibly and ethically, AI can become an invaluable tool that has far-reaching implications comparable to those of Photoshop and digital cameras in graphic design and photography.
Sitting at the forefront of all this AI promise is the want to have tools on your desktop or laptop that can achieve tasks without needing to rely on the cloud, especially when working with sensitive or NDA-based work, and this is where Intel and the AI PC come into play. For those who do not know, before AI PCs, unless you had a sizable GPU and were using any AI application, you had to send your data to the cloud. If you were using ChatGPT to write a short poem or ask it something silly, this was not really an issue, but if you were trying to work on client work or do something for a secret project, this was a big red flag that was simply not acceptable.
Starting with Intel’s Meteor Lake, the ability to use your Intel laptop as an offline AI machine for some tasks has become a reality, even on laptops without a discrete GPU. The new NPU and ARC graphics built right into the Intel CPU makes things like AI image generation, smaller LLMs (Large Language Models), and other smart offerings all possible without even connecting to the internet. What was once a thing relegated only to massive data centers could now be done on a laptop and done quickly without the tedium of learning how to code, etc.
While this is exciting in theory, what does it really mean for the average PC user or, even more, someone who uses their PC for creative tasks like game development? This is where tools that leverage the power of AI can be useful and harness their power for tasks that, at times, can be tedious to constantly do. The potential is near limitless, and this is exactly why Intel has been putting major development into new solutions that can tie into current development pipelines that leverage the power of the AI PC and help game development in new and revolutionary ways.
If you are using an Intel AI PC, their OpenVINO toolkit sits as a major aid in bridging the gap between the various AI-powered software packages and your Intel CPU. It serves as a way to optimize and develop on these platforms in a way that not only lets your PC perform various tasks, but to do them well. With the different aspects at play in the Meteor Lake and Intel’s new Lunar Lake chips, it is now possible to open up a new level of power that before, was simply impossible, at least using a laptop not connected to the internet.
Marketing Director at Intel, Asma Aziz, noted, “If we are seeing a market where 80% of PCs will be an AI PC in 2028, this can also state that more people will have access to an infinite sea of AI-powered applications to enhance the user experience, what could be in Gaming or other areas. Considering we have this in place, people will be most likely to see quicker advancements when it comes to AI in Gaming and more.”
As more AI PCs reach consumers and developers, the ability to take advantage of these tools is constantly improving. This could mean exciting things for everyone, including game development, creativity, and so much more.
While we are still exploring all the ways AI could be implemented, even in today’s relatively raw state, there are already new ways to bring your vision to life. Take what Intel is doing with their new AI GameDev Toolkit. Intel says this toolkit is a foundation layer to help the standard Unity editor interface with AI with add-ins for style transfer, object detection, and world creation.
While it may be just now making its way to developers and only the start of what could be possible, it already brings a wealth of new ways projects can take shape, cutting the time from inception to something playable. With the toolkit already supporting Unity, this means Indie studios can bring their ideas to the public faster and give the creative people behind these projects new ways to iterate, without the large losses that can kill many indie projects early on.
Aziz also said, “This could go without saying, but the richness of AI lies on unlocking the potential of allowing humans focus on what’s more important: instead of having a developer creating a whole scenario over and over again because of minor differences, we can find associated with a specific storyline, AI can enter and do the same task faster.”
As more AI PCs enter the market and more tools leverage these features, small teams can reap the benefits, all while letting the talent that is there shine. Even simple things like AI upscaling, noise reduction for audio, or the ability to bring the power of transcription to meetings allow each AI PC to take on the various tasks that, even just five years ago, would have been tedious tasks that would have taken teams away from doing what they are good at.
The potential of AI in all creative fields is only just taking shape, but it is already an exciting landscape to explore. While there are a lot of questions about what this means for creative industries if used ethically, there is a vast world of potential waiting to be unlocked, and AI PCs are a major key to unlocking it. With ethical pushes to see the technology used to help jobs rather than replace them, there is potential to see the gaming industry and others change for the better.
Gaming and the creative fields are filled with many talented people, and many get stuck in minutia rather than showing their best work. The industry as a whole has reservations about what the promise of AI actually means, but the potential is there when AI PCs are used ethically.
