Jim Johnson, SVP Client Computing Group at Intel, and Jerry Kao, COO at Acer, discussed their partnership ahead of Computex 2024. Acer offers multiple AI PC models powered by Intel but is also launching AI PCs with Nvidia RTX. The emphasis was on Intel’s ecosystem advantage for Acer. New AI features like Acer Assist, VisionArt, and LiveArt were introduced. Johnson highlighted the practical use of AI despite skepticism. Kao discussed the segmentation complexities of AI PCs, focusing on user experience.
Jim Johnson, SVP of Client Computing Group and GM of Client Business Group at Intel, joined Jerry Kao, COO at Acer, for an intimate one-to-one discussion onstage and a walk-through of Acer’s AI apps ahead of Computex 2024.
Kao was very positive about the partnership with Intel, citing Centrino as having been particularly crucial to Acer’s success, and saying of Intel’s Evo, which combines Core Ultra processors with the original Xe GPU generation, “If Evo is there, people will buy.”
Acer has more than 12 AI PC models powered by Intel, Kao said. Acer is also launching AI PCs powered by Nvidia RTX at Computex 2024, but Kao singled out that “the reason Intel is different is not just the hardware but the ecosystem that [Acer] can leverage to create unique value. You will not see AI PC from Intel competitors with more features than Intel because Intel brings the ecosystem.”
New Acer features for Gen AI on show at Computex include:
- Acer Assist—Device-context SLM
- VisionArt—Generative 4K wallpaper
- LiveArt—Interactive AI images
These complement Acer’s real-time apps:
- SpatialLabs Go—AI 2D-to 3D-4K60
- Acer PurifiedView—Videoconference camera effects
- Acer PurifiedVoice—Video call noise cancellation
“We sometimes get skepticism about AI, but you can see there are real ways to use it,” said Johnson.
That said, we felt the AI applications that were demonstrated were relatively trivial. Acer Assist is a better help bot, with access to machine capabilities to troubleshoot user issues. We quite liked that.
VisionArt creates 4K wallpaper based on cues like the user’s location. It was nice, but seemed like something you’d use infrequently.
We had a demo of LiveArt, which failed to recognize that I was holding up a thumb. Having previously been trained on a succession of people holding up two fingers in a V for victory pose, it insisted on drawing me the same way.
“The purpose of this week was to create confidence in what we are launching,” said Johnson.
Kao expressed that Lunar Lake had a strong place in the complicated segmentation of AI PCs: “When there are many competitors, there will be a price war, and it will become a commodity. But today’s experience, in terms of Lunar Lake, is people are willing to pay.”
Johnson added, “Lunar Lake is just a segment, but there are other segments like Meteor Lake. No one will know if it’s CPU, GPU, NPU. The user wants the experience, and we have to deliver that.”