Apple’s plan to incorporate generative AI into chip design is a significant change in its engineering strategy. This strategy combines innovation with automation at a very fundamental level. In order to speed up the chip architectural process through the use of AI will greatly shorten chip development cycles, and would reduce expenditures. It will also show Apple’s commitment to maintaining its dominance. Such a shift introduces an element of generalization that challenges the long-standing rules of design verification and quality control standards.
Srouji’s statement of having “no backup plan” during this particular transition demonstrates Apple’s solid faith in its top-down control and culture of commitment. It refers to a kind of high-stakes strategy that now seems to have paid mostly well. Yet the degree of reliance on such AI engines in a hyper-precision working environment already raises the question of just how Apple will effectively take AI designs through validation when done at scale level. It raises new risks, not necessarily that of failing, but rather of becoming excessively dependent.
Ultimately, all of it hinges on how effectively Apple will be able to infuse human creativity with machine utility. If generative AI turns into the Apple brains, the organization needs to make sure it’s not merely speeding up, but also thinking intelligently.
Apple is interested in tapping generative artificial intelligence to help speed up the design of the custom chips at the heart of its devices, its top hardware technology executive said in private remarks last month. Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, outlined Apple’s development of custom chips from the first A4 chip in an iPhone in 2010 to the most recent chips that power Mac desktop computers and the Vision Pro headset. He said one of the key lessons Apple learned was that it needed to use the most cutting-edge tools available to design its chips, including the latest chip design software from electronic design automation (EDA) firms. “EDA companies are super critical in supporting our chip design complexities,” Srouji said another key lesson Apple learned in designing its own chips was to make big bets and not look back. “Moving the Mac to Apple Silicon was a huge bet for us. There was no backup plan, no split-the lineup plan, so we went all in, including a monumental software effort,” Srouji said.