Qualcomm wants to make generative AI accessible to everyone

AI is seemingly everywhere these days; it’s in your phone, your TV, your computer, and even your headphones. The technology is still in its infancy, but there are legitimate use cases where AI makes a difference: transcribing notes, generating summaries, editing images, etc.

So it’s no surprise that Qualcomm is getting in on the action. The chipmaker unveiled the AI ​​Hub at Mobile World Congress. It is an AI modeling platform that can easily be deployed by developers on devices running Qualcomm hardware, including Snapdragon 8-powered phones and various IoT devices.

With AI Hub, Qualcomm makes it easier for developers to use AI models in their existing services with minimal effort. The idea is to provide access to AI utilities built into wearable devices and, as such, the models that Qualcomm integrates into AI Hub target use cases such as image recognition and editing, image generation from text prompts, automatic speech recognition, etc. .

To better understand what the brand is trying to achieve, I spoke to Sahil Arora, Senior Business Development Manager, Qualcomm India, on the sidelines of the Qualcomm India Developer Conference. We started with the basics: how does AI Hub benefit developers?

“We take on a large workload that is usually handled by application developers, making it easier for them to get started with AI. So if a developer wants to use a particular AI model, we already have it available in AI Hub. , and these models are pre-optimized and pre-tuned; They just need to use a sample application to get started. In just five line codes, they can get started with an AI model,” Arora said. “We essentially help developers focus on creating new and innovative use cases instead of spending effort on ‘integration of AI tools and models into their workflow.’

What’s interesting about the way Qualcomm is positioning AI Hub is that if a developer wants to run their own models, they can do so easily. “If a developer has already worked on a particular AI model and wants to use it on a device, they simply publish it to AI Hub and integrate it seamlessly,” Arora noted. The AI ​​Hub models target Snapdragon 8 series devices – including the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – and Qualcomm’s IoT platforms, and the chip supplier is expected to launch these models on its Snapdragon X series in the coming months.

AI Hub launched with 75 AI models, and it now offers 95 models to choose from, including Stable Diffusion, Whisper, ControlNet, and Baichuan 7B. While it’s great that these tools are easily accessible, I wanted to know how they would affect end users. “Through these utilities, developers can easily provide numerous customization options, such as extending the background of an existing image, AI translation, or creating AI-assisted backgrounds. AI, without having to turn to the cloud.” Arora said.

Much of AI Hub’s appeal is that the models included are primarily run on-device; Qualcomm showcased use cases such as Image Object Eraser on the OPPO Find X7 Ultra, AI-assisted image expansion with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, and AI-powered video editing with the Honor Magic 6 Pro. Arora noted that Qualcomm sees itself as a “technology enabler” and that it provides the tools that enable its partners to deliver unique use cases. “AI Hub is not a consumer-facing feature, but it has the ability to impact many consumers.”

The best part of AI Hub is that Qualcomm doesn’t charge for licensing to use the included AI models; they are free and can be used by all developers. Focusing on generative AI use cases on mobile devices, Qualcomm is looking to deliver another layer of differentiation with its Snapdragon chipsets, and with the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 announced to bring significant gains in this area , it will be interesting to see what’s next. The latest generation phones have to offer.