Spotify is testing an AI-powered feature that creates playlists from text prompts. TikTok user @robdad_ posted a short clip of it, captioned, “I just randomly discovered Spotify’s ChatGPT?” For the chosen guinea pigs, the feature is available as an option under Your Library after tapping the plus sign to create a new playlist. The news was reported by TechCrunch, which says it received confirmation from Spotify that it’s testing AI playlists. It isn’t yet clear if the music streamer plans to launch it publicly.

“Turn your ideas into playlists using Al,” the feature’s in-app description reads in the TikTok video (while noting it’s only available in English). Above a chatbot field for custom inputs, it also suggests prompts. These include, “Get focused at work with instrumental electronica,” “Fill the silence with background cafe music,” “Get pumped up with fun, beat, and positive songs” and “Explore a niche genre like Witch House.”

@robdad_ \ TikTok

@robdad_ chose the last option. “Here’s your Witch House Exploration playlist,” the bot responded. “Swipe left to remove any songs you don’t want as you continue refining your playlist.” Due to video editing, it’s impossible to tell from the TikTok clip how long Spotify’s AI took to generate the tracks.

The resulting (Grimes-heavy) playlist included “Bloom for Me” by Pearly Drops, “Goth” by Sidewalks and Skeletons, “Pin” by Grimes, “After Dark” by Mr.Kitty, “Suffocation” by Crystal Castles, “Cold Touch” by Kito and GrimesAI and “chain” by Aziya and “Nothing Lasts Forever” by Sevdaliza and Grimes. I’ll leave it to the Witch House experts to determine if the AI did a good job.

In a statement to TechCrunch, Spotify was tight-lipped about whether the general public can expect to see AI playlists. “We routinely conduct a number of tests,” a Spotify spokesperson wrote. “Some of those tests end up paving the path for our broader experience and others serve only as an important learning. We don’t have anything further to share at this time.”

Drew Angerer via Getty Images

If Spotify eventually launches the feature, perhaps it could include it as a carrot to entice users to pay for a more expensive subscription tier. The company’s premium hi-fi feature, announced nearly three years ago, still hasn’t materialized after rival Apple Music added lossless audio without charging extra. Expanded audiobook access could be another perk to throw into a pricier plan.

Earlier this year, Spotify launched an AI DJ feature (powered by OpenAI tech) that talks you through recommendations. It does so using an AI voice trained on the company’s Head of Cultural Partnerships, Xavier “X” Jernigan.

Like much of the tech industry, the music streamer appears eager to incorporate artificial intelligence into its products. In addition to the AI DJ, Spotify CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek said in a July earnings call that the company could use AI to “contextualize and personalize content.” The Ringer founder Bill Simmons noted in May (first reported by Semafor) that Spotify was developing “a way to use my voice for ads.” The sports analysis podcaster added, “You have to obviously give the approval for the voice, but it opens up, from an advertising standpoint, all these different great possibilities for you.”

Earlier this month, Spotify conducted its third round of layoffs in 2023. It’s only the latest chapter of what’s turned out to be a devastating year of job cuts in the tech industry.

The UN has set out a pathway to avoiding the very worst effects of climate change. Earlier this week, delegates from around the world ratified a document setting out what we need to do, and when. Even better, the text finally ended the decades-long omerta of never talking about the impact fossil fuels have had on our environment. It’s a landmark moment in history and one that means we can have hope for the future of humanity. Unless, that is, you spend any time examining the substance of the deal to see if the expectations meet the reality. Because then you’ll see that while it’s not all doom and gloom, it’s certainly not the bold action we really need.

Context

All of this took place at the Conference of the Parties (COP) an annual, UN-backed conference to build international consensus on climate change. Delegates from all UN member states, as well as bodies like the EU, all meet at a host city for two weeks to speedrun something that looks a lot like a treaty. The 28th such event was hosted in Dubai, which attracted plenty of criticism given the emirate’s fossil fuel wealth. Its president was Sultan Al Jaber, UAE minister of industry and, uh, the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil company.

The perception that the event would be a fossil fuel industry stitch-up wasn’t helped when BBC News reported the UAE secretly planned to use the event to strike new oil and gas deals. Or that Al Jaber was quoted by The Guardian saying there was “no science” supporting the idea that a phase out of fossil fuels was necessary to prevent further warming. He later said his comment had been taken out of context and that he supported work to reduce fossil fuel use.

For all the light and heat around COP, it’s not as powerful as you might hope or think, since there is no real enforcement mechanism. The parties (should) negotiate in good faith but if nations don’t actually follow through on their promises, there’s no mechanism to address it. Diplomacy is a delicate art, especially with so many moving pieces, so maybe we should all learn to appreciate the subtleties. That’s the positive case.

The negative one being that COP28 has been more theater than politics. Anne Rasmussen, representing the Alliance of Small Island States, pointed out her group wasn’t even in the room when the declaration was ratified. Ironic, given that the event was dubbed as “the most inclusive COP to-date, ensuring all voices could participate in the process.” During the plenary, Rasmussen said the text, approved in her absence, doesn’t go far enough in several ways and carries a “litany of loopholes” for wealthy nations to delay, or avoid their responsibilities.

TL;DR

The text opens with a long introductory section admitting that humanity as a whole hasn’t been doing a good enough job. It admits humans are responsible for raising the Earth’s temperature by at least 1.1 degrees celsius, and we’re on the hook to fix it. And the 1.5 degrees celsius limit agreed in Paris in 2015 isn’t going to happen unless we really start putting the work in right now. It adds that while the technology is there, we haven’t made enough use of it, and that plenty of small island nations and countries in the developing world will bear the brunt of our inaction.

1: The Task at Hand

Because we’ve dragged our feet for so long, the extent of action needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees celsius will be stark. (And 1.5 degrees isn’t maintaining the status quo but the limit that keeps the slew of natural disasters it precipitates from becoming biblical.) Humanity needs to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent by 2030, and 60 percent by 2035. To get a sense of that task, we emitted around 60 gigatonnes of CO2 in 2019, and now we’ve got a decade to cut it by more than a half. Should we reach that ambitious target, we then need to repeat the same feat even faster to ensure we reach net zero emissions by 2050. Even though most climate scientists I’ve spoken to feel that the 2050 deadline is far too late.

2: The Loopholes

Rasmussen already highlighted that the goals laid out in the text are hazy, more guidelines than real processes. They’re written with the caveat that nations should contribute to the overall goal in a “nationally determined manner.” On one hand, that respects “their different national circumstances, pathways and approaches.” On the other, it allows some nations to pass off insufficient work as them doing their part without consequence.

3: Tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030

One of the biggest pledges in the document is to triple renewable energy generation capacity by 2030. Data from the International Renewable Energy Agency says that in 2022 that figure stood at 3,371,793 MW. So, we’ve got six years or so to manufacture and build 6,743,586 MW of renewable energy, from wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear and the rest. Simple, right?

Not so much. Not to denigrate the work that’s already been going on, but we’re nowhere near that level. Between 2021 and 2022, the world got a little under 300,000 MW of new renewable generation up and running. To lay even one finger on the target COP28 has set down, the world needs to be averaging closer to 1.2 million MW every single year.

But, and here’s the thing – these figures don’t actually feature in the ratified version of the text at all. I’ve done the math from the 2022 figures because that seems relevant but the text itself has no baseline, or any frame of reference at all. It’s conceivable a bad actor could say they’ve tripled domestic renewables work from an earlier date, or start their count from zero.

4: Transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems

You’ll have seen plenty of the headlines out of COP28 commenting this is the first declaration to explicitly mention fossil fuels in its text. It’s wild to think we’ve had nearly three decades of these summits and everyone has chosen to just look the other way until now. You can see how tightly these points have been massaged and lawyered to make sure while the elephant in the room has been pointed out, it’s still very welcome to stay. It can continue to knock over the furniture and drop big piles of dung, too, so long as certain folks keep making money.

One clause pledges to speed up efforts to “phase down unabated coal power,” which means plants that gesture toward carbon capture aren’t targeted. The fact that the deal doesn’t call for a near-instantaneous blanket ban on coal burning boggles the mind given the science at hand. After all, coal isn’t just the worst fossil fuel, it’s the most environmentally harmful: if you burn one ton of coal, you’ll actually create more than twice that amount of CO2. Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency said that global CO2 emissions from coal power increased by two percent, reaching “a new high in 2022.”

Another clause pledges an acceleration toward “net zero emission energy systems” that use “zero and low carbon fuels” before 2050. And then there's the big one — a clause talking about a transition away from “fossil fuels in energy systems” in a “just, orderly and equitable manner.” I’m enough of a cynic to think those phrases can be bent miles out of shape, and the fact there’s no benchmarks or enforcement mechanisms means that, for now, it’s all just cheap, sweet words.

Then we’ve got a push for other low-emission technologies which, alongside renewables and nuclear, include “abatement and removal” like carbon capture and low-carbon hydrogen. It’s fair to say that those last two should be treated like the mythical unicorns they really are. After all, abundant, low-carbon hydrogen created with renewable energy is a technological cul-de-sac. And while it’s fair to say (mechanical) carbon capture is still relatively new, data from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis suggests it’s a non-starter.

It’s hard not to be cynical watching entities with a vested interest in the status quo gesture toward these projects when they're likely to use them as license to stick with business as usual. If there’s one good point in this part, it’s that there’s a pledge to “substantially” reduce the volume of non carbon dioxide emissions. It specifically namechecks methane, a greenhouse gas that is significantly more damaging than CO2 in the short term. There’s also a reference to cutting emissions in road transport by pushing infrastructure for low and zero-emission vehicles.

As notable as the mention of fossil fuels was, the declaration also “recognizes that transition fuels can play a role in facilitating the energy transition while ensuring energy security.” To you and me, that means countries can continue to exploit and burn fossil fuels like natural gas. Now, gas is better than coal for greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s a bit like saying you’ll only burn down the ground floor of your home rather than the whole thing. Not to mention that natural gas is predominantly made up of methane, that thing we’re also meant to be reducing.

5: The rest

Much of the work at COP28 was focused on broader issues, including making sure the financial gravity of the situation was addressed. There was a lot of negotiation around various monetary tools and funds that could be used to incentivize responsible emissions reduction. There were also pledges made for international co-operation, knowledge sharing and protecting economic growth. One clause that did leap out was a pledge to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies that “do not address energy poverty or just transitions,” which is similarly weak in its definition. And while there are gestures toward halting deforestation and restoring the natural environment, there’s little substance. One section invites — invites! — parties to “preserve and restore oceans and coastal ecosystems.”

Reactions

Dr Phil Williamson, Honorary Associate Professor in Environmental Science at the University at East Anglia said that COP28’s declaration “represents modest political process, recognising what has been scientifically obvious for at least 30 years.” And it’s this point that probably needs highlighting given how many Very Serious People will likely hail COP28 as a landmark. Yes, it’s a massive achievement to finally mention that fossil fuels are the reason we’re in this mess. But the fact it’s taken so long for us to even be confident enough talking about the problem means we now have almost no time to do the work to get us out of it.

If you’ve been crowding around your gaming console waiting for the long-promised “next-gen” patch for Fallout 4, you still have a ways to go. Bethesda just announced that the update has been pushed to 2024, after being promised for this year. There has been no information given as to what part of the year the patch would release, though developers have stated they just need “a bit more time.”

The “next-gen” patch is really a current-gen update, as it's being developed for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. However, Fallout 4 did originally release in 2015 for the previous generation of consoles, so by that metric this is a next-gen patch. It’ll bring requested features like a higher frame rate, 4K visuals and new (though unspecified) Creation Club content. There could also be some surprises in store for fans of the franchise, which would account for the delay.

This isn’t the first time Bethesda has gone back to the radioactive well to spruce up Fallout 4. An update for the Xbox One X (not to be confused with the Series X) brought 4K visuals, but at only 30 frames per second. The company managed to up the frame rate to 60FPS last year, but at the expense of resolution. This time around, the improvements should come with fewer compromises.

At least it’s something to pull players back to the Commonwealth, because we have an excruciatingly long time to wait before Fallout 5. Back in 2022, Bethesda creative director Todd Howard told reporters that work on the title would begin after completing The Elder Scrolls 6. However, developers just started digging into the fantasy sequel after Starfield launched. Incidentally, the space sim took seven years to make. By that metric, we are looking at ten to 14 years before we once again wander the apocalypse. 

It’s a good thing we have that Fallout TV show coming soon to help guide us through the desolation. That’s releasing in April and features Walton Goggins as a Ghoul, one of the radiation-warped denizens of the Wasteland. Some are even speculating that Goggins will not be any old Ghoul, but will portray John Hancock, a companion from Fallout 4.

It's been a year since we learned that a movie based on Death Stranding was in the works. Now, Kojima Productions has brought another notable partner on board. A24, the celebrated studio behind movies such as Everything Everywhere All At Once and Uncut Gems, is helping to adapt Death Stranding into a live-action film.

More than 16 million people have explored Hideo Kojima's haunting game so far. Death Stranding tasks a courier named Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus) with unifying a fractured America after a cataclysmic event. It's a strange, captivating game. Perhaps most importantly for A24, it's also deeply cinematic.

The adaptation will "delve into the mysteries surrounding the apocalyptic event called the 'Death Stranding,' which blurred the lines between life and death, and brought forth nightmarish creatures into a world on the brink of collapse," according to a press release. Don't expect the film to directly follow the events of the game, though.

"There are a lot of 'game adaptation films' out there but what we are creating is not just a direct translation of the game," Kojima, who claims to have taken inspiration from some of A24's work, said. "The intention is that our audience will not only be fans of the games, but our film will be for anyone who loves cinema. We are creating a Death Stranding universe that has never been seen before, achievable only through the medium of film, it will be born.”

Kojima is a renowned movie buff who may very well have been a film director in another life. He may not have enough time to slide into the director's chair on this occasion though, as Kojima Productions has its hands full with two games that are in the works: a Death Stranding sequel and a new project called OD. Still, A24 has a number of high-profile collaborators who'd make a compelling Death Stranding film. I'm curious as to what Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, Sofia Coppola or Alex Garland might be able to do with that source material.

Cruise is laying off 24 percent of its workforce, the company confirmed to Engadget. GM’s self-driving subsidiary says it will cut approximately 900 employees, as first reported by TechCrunch and CNBC. The news comes over 10 weeks after an incident in San Francisco when a Cruise vehicle pinned and dragged a pedestrian who had initially been hit by another car. Earlier this week, the company parted ways with nine executives, including its chief operating officer.

“We shared the difficult news that we are reducing our workforce, primarily in commercial operations and related corporate functions,” a Cruise spokesperson wrote in an email to Engadget. “These changes reflect our decision to focus on more deliberate commercialization plans with safety as our north star. We are supporting impacted Cruisers with strong severance and benefits packages and are grateful to the departing employees who played important roles in building Cruise and supporting our mission.” 

A Cruise spokesperson pointed Engadget toward an internal email written by new President and CTO Mo Elshenawy, also published on the company blog. “We knew this day was coming, but that does not make it any less difficult—especially for those whose jobs are affected,” the message reads. The email says the layoffs primarily target non-engineering roles, including field workers, commercial operations and corporate staffing.

“We are simplifying and focusing our efforts to return with an exceptional service in one city to start with and focusing on the Bolt platform for this first step before we scale,” the email reads. “As a result, we are reducing our employee counts in operations and other areas.”

The news isn’t exactly a shock. Last month, Mary Barra, GM Chair and CEO, expressed plans for Cruise to be more “deliberate.” That included cutting expenses “by hundreds of millions of dollars” in 2024, a clear sign that the writing was already on the wall for considerable layoffs.

The tragic October 2 incident involved a Cruise vehicle pinning a pedestrian after another car’s hit-and-run. There weren’t any passengers in the autonomous vehicle (AV) at the time. “She was just screaming,” a cyclist bystander who tried to help told the SF Chronicle. The aftermath has been swift and decisive, with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) suspending its driverless permits over safety issues. There were even reports the company’s AVs were unable to effectively detect children, a situation that obviously requires extra precautions.

The roughly 900 employees losing their jobs at Cruise join a long list of tech layoffs in 2023.

Apple’s 9th-gen iPad is back on sale via Amazon for $249, which is a 24 percent savings from the MSRP of $329. This isn’t the lowest price ever for the standard 10.2-inch tablet, but it’s darn close. This is the entry-level model with 64GB of storage, but that's still plenty to load up the tablet with all kinds of streaming apps and games.

The 9th-gen iPad is widely considered to be the best Apple tablet for the budget-conscious, which is made more evident by this sale. It scored an 86 in our initial review and we praised it for the improved camera for video calls, the excellent battery life and, of course, that consumer-friendly price.

As a matter of fact, this tablet made our list of the best Apple iPads, though that’s something of a no-brainer. The screen is sharp and the 12MP camera is fine for most applications. This iPad also has a legitimate old-school headphone jack, which actually comes in quite handy when you can’t find that teensy-tiny Lightning adapter.

Of course, this tablet isn’t perfect, particularly when compared to some of its pricier siblings. The hardware is basically a step down from the Air and Pro in several ways. The design itself is a bit antiquated, recalling older models, and it's powered by the same chipset found with the iPhone 11. That’s four iPhones ago, which is a lifetime in the world of tech.

If your eyes roll into the back of your head when you look at the price of the iPad Air or Pro, however, this is the tablet for you. We called it the “most wallet-friendly way into iPadOS” and that was before this steep discount.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Last week, Meta finally rolled out searchable tags for all users on Threads, its microblogging Instagram offshoot, and users are taking advantage of a design quirk for a bit of dumb fun. Threads’ “topic tags” are a lot like hashtags, but not entirely the same. For one, there’s no hash (#). They’re also able to contain spaces, meaning the tags can read like normal phrases rather than a bunch of words smashed together, as has long been the norm on Twitter/X and the like. Just like normal hashtags, though, they’ll be highlighted in blue and link out to other posts containing that tag.

It’s pretty basic stuff… which makes the effectiveness of the new prank feel all the more absurd. It goes like this: someone creates a Threads post, ideally with a lot of text, then slaps a “Show more” tag at the end, seemingly in the middle of a word or sentence. You, the unwitting victim, will then click “Show more” expecting to see the rest of the post, but — surprise! — it’ll instead direct you to the page for that tag. You might as well have been Rick Rolled. 

@freezydorito/Threads

I’ll admit it, I got got. Some users, bless their hearts, have even commented saying they fell for it multiple times, thinking it was a bug. The first instance can be traced back to Threads user @freezydorito, who according to their own bio and professional pages actually works for Meta. 

As simple as it is, the trick works so well because it perfectly duplicates a UI element we’re already so used to seeing. Should it be a dead giveaway that the text is a blue link? Not really, because that’s exactly how it’s always looked on X. Even on Facebook, the option to expand a post is presented as a gray “See more” link. It’s been a while since I last fell for something so silly online, because I generally trust nothing, and it momentarily threw me back to a much goofier time on the internet.

On Threads, my For You feed is already a cursed space filled with bad recommendations, and since I interacted with the “Show more” tag, I’ve now seen at least three dozen of these posts. I would say that this gag isn’t likely to survive beyond the week (fool me twice, et cetera), but my timeline is still peppered with new users posting things like “What is Threads?” every other day who are just ripe for the picking. Threads also just launched in Europe today, which means there will be plenty more unsuspecting users piling in. Let's see how long it takes for Meta to implement a tweak for this one.

Lenovo has unveiled its latest productivity-focused ThinkPad and IdeaPad laptops ahead of CES. The systems are equipped with Intel's new Core Ultra chipsets, which include three compute engines — a central processing unit, graphics processing unit and neural processing unit. Those are designed to work together for greater efficiency. Lenovo notes that some compute tasks can be offloaded to the GPU or NPU for better performance and power management. Since they run on Windows 11, all three laptops will support Copilot AI features.

The IdeaPad Pro 5i is the first consumer Intel Evo Edition laptop that runs on an Intel Core Ultra chipset. Lenovo claims this will power faster AI-driven features, such as image and text generation, as well as photo editing. There are also claims of improved performance for traditionally demanding tasks like video editing and exporting, along with multitasking.

You can equip the IdeaPad Pro 5i with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, up to 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to a 1TB SSD. An expandable SSD slot and SD card reader can help bump up the storage as well.

The laptop is available in 14-inch and 16-inch formats with several display options, including an 16:10 OLED panel with a 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut and 120Hz refresh rate. The IR Full HD camera has a time-of-flight sensor and privacy shutter along with Windows Hello support.

No matter which size of the laptop you opt for, you'll get an 84WHr polymer battery with quick charging support via Thunderbolt 4. You'll get an HDMI 2.1 port, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A slots and a 3.5mm audio jack. There's also Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 support. The 14-inch model weighs 3.22 lbs and the larger variant is 4.3 lbs.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5i is available now. The laptop starts at $1,150.

Lenovo

You'll need to wait slightly longer for the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12. Some configurations will be available later this month (starting at $2,989) and the full swathe of options to follow in March. The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9 will become available in March too. That laptop is expected to start at $2,639.

Lenovo has integrated a major accessibility-focused feature into the new ThinkPads in the form of additional tactile cues on the keyboard to help folks with visual impairments. The company says it worked with Microsoft’s Accessibility Team to help develop new industry standards in keyboard design. For instance, the F2 and F3 keys (often used for volume control) have tactile markings, as does the Insert key to help people tell it apart from the Delete key. Meanwhile, the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 has a larger magnetic pen, which is said to deliver a better experience for those who prefer to use a stylus.

The ThinkPad X1 models include a self-explanatory Low Light Enhancer feature for the webcam. Lenovo says this tool runs on the NPU for greater system efficiency when you have video conferencing software such as Zoom running.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 can be configured with up to 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 2TB of SSD storage. There's no dedicated GPU option as the laptop will support Intel Arc graphics. The 14-inch display can have a resolution of up to 2.8K with a refresh rate of 120Hz on an OLED panel.

As for ports, you'll get two USB-C Thunderbolt 4, two USB-C, an HDMI 2.1 and a 3.5mm audio jack. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 can be equipped with Wi-Fi 6E or 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. There are several webcam options too, up to an 8MP MIPI Computer Vision camera with privacy shutter. The laptop's weight starts at 2.42 lbs.

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 9 has similar specs though it, of course, is a 2-in-1. The other key difference is that the weight starts at 2.92 lbs.

Lenovo

Intel today is entering the "AI PC" era with the launch of its new Core Ultra notebook chips. Originally codenamed "Meteor Lake," these are Intel's first processors to include an NPU, or neural processing unit, for accelerating AI tasks. The launch comes a week after AMD revealed its upcoming Ryzen 8040 hardware, its second batch of chips to include NPUs. While Intel is playing a bit of AI catch-up, the Core Ultra chips still sound like a solid step forward — at least according to the company's benchmarks.

Intel claims the Core Ultra chips use up to 79 percent less power than AMD's last-gen Ryzen 7840U while idling in Windows, and they're also up to 11 percent faster than AMD's hardware for multithreaded tasks. Intel didn't have the upcoming Ryzen 8040 chips to test, but it'll be interesting to see how they both compare next year.

Efficiency is a key component of the Core Ultra chips: They're built on the company's new Intel 4 (7nm) process, and they feature its FOVEROS 3D packaging. According to Intel, these are are also "the most efficient x86 processor for ultrathin systems." There are refined P (Performance) and E (Efficiency) cores, as well as Intel Arc graphics, which is up to twice as fast as the last generation (and also offer double the performance per watt).

Intel

The Core Ultra family launches with the Ultra 7 165H at the high end, offering 16 cores/22 threads (6P cores, 8 E cores and 2 low-power E cores and a 5GHz Max Turbo frequency. A beefier Ultra 9 185H will arrive in the first quarter of 2024 with a 5.1GHz Max Turbo speed, slightly faster GPU and higher power draw (45 watts, compared to the Ultra 7's 28 watts). As usual, there's also a lower-power "U" series of chips for the thinnest machines.

While you won't find the Core Ultra chips in the most powerful gaming laptops, the addition of Intel Arc graphics should make them slightly more viable for less demanding gaming (or at least more on par with AMD's 7000 series chips). Intel says the Ultra 7 165H can play Baldur's Gate 3 twice as fast as the Core i7 1370P in 1080p with medium graphics settings, and it can handle Resident Evil Village 95 percent faster than that older Intel chip. 

Across an average of 18 games, including Apex Legends, Overwatch 2 and Final Fantasy XIV, Intel says the Ultra 7 165H is 5 percent faster than AMD's Ryzen 7 7840U in the Thinkpad T16. Sure, that's just a nominal improvement over last-gen hardware, but at least Intel finally appears to be competitive with AMD's solid graphics. The company's XeSS AI upscaling can also improve performance around 39 percent on average in 1080p. In some titles, including Like A Dragon: Gaiden, Intel's upscaling can bump a game up from a middling 30fps range to a far smoother 69 fps.

As for AI workloads, Intel says Core Ultra chips can reach up to 34 TeraOPS when combining performance across the NPU, GPU and CPU. But the big change this time is the NPU: It'll enable features like Windows 11's Studio Effects, which can blur backgrounds and improve video lighting without hurting your battery life much. For creative AI workloads, Intel says the Ultra 7 165H is 70 percent faster than the Ryzen 7 7840U in Adobe Premiere Pro and a whopping 5.4 times faster running GIMP Stable Diffusion.

What's truly exciting about the Core Ultra hardware, as well as AMD's upcoming Ryzen 8040 series, is the potential for NPUs to make our computing lives slightly easier. They could help eke out more battery life while editing audio in Audacity on the go, or give you a slightly sleeker background blur during Zoom calls. Both Intel and AMD also say they're also pushing developers to help create more AI-enabled features in their apps. Basically, get used to the term "AI PC" — you'll be hearing it quite a bit throughout the next year.  

Acer just unveiled the Predator Triton Neo 16 gaming laptop which features Intel’s long-awaited Core Ultra processors, formerly referred to internally as Meteor Lake. These CPUs boast a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for advanced AI performance. The chips prioritize efficiency and speed, with Intel promising that graphics will be twice as fast when it comes to performance per watt, among other intriguing metrics.

As for the actual laptop, Acer’s Predator Triton Neo 16 is a beast. There’s the Core Ultra processor, with availability up to i9, but you can also outfit it with a powerful GPU, up to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070. This combination allows for AI-optimized visuals when playing games with advanced ray tracing, thanks to NVIDIA’s DLSS 3.5 technology.

There are several 16-inch display options here, offering up to a 3.2K resolution with a 165Hz refresh rate and a 16:10 aspect ratio. These screens take advantage of a DCI-P3 100% color gamut and offer support for NVIDIA G-Sync and Optimus, for sharper colors and tear-free frames.

You can spec this laptop out with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X system memory and up to 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. These computers also offer access to Acer’s proprietary Purifier Voice 2.0 technology, which combines AI-driven noise reduction and beam-forming to keep communications clear during fast-paced multiplayer sessions. The Predator Triton Neo 16 will be available in March, starting at $1,500.

Acer

Looking for a laptop outfitted with a new Intel Core Ultra chip but don’t want to wait until March? Acer also updated the Swift Go 14 line. These laptops aren’t as powerful, maxing out with an i7 chip, but feature a gorgeous OLED display. You can actually pick one of these up today from retailers like Amazon, Costco and Sam’s Club, among others. The Swift Go 14 starts at $800 for the bare-bones model.