Computer and AI. Use of English B1+

In this heavily connected world, large-format computers are no longer the necessity they once were. Let’s face it, the days of the dedicated standalone home computer, with dedicated local software installations, are … How many of you reading this still use such a computer?

Have you switched to the tablet format, that is, typically, an iPad or Android tablet? Or perhaps everything … with your phone? Or maybe you have a laptop, either of the PC, Mac, or Chromebook variety, to complement your phone’s use as an internet-connected device?

In this heavily connected world, large-format computers are no longer the necessity they once were. So-called “tower” devices are frequently sitting … in a basement closet, or perhaps they’ve been shipped off to the local recycler or thrift store.

Even these stores may have a difficult time moving such gear. Like audio CDs, their time seems to … .

Perhaps you’ve noticed some of this at your church or community bazaar or garage sale, signs … “No CDs, no computer gear.”

Organizers … to realize they have to haul away much of this material after the event, as it mostly goes unsold.

Some reading this will, of course, challenge such thinking. I’ve heard various arguments. Here’s a typical example: “I need to run Office 20xx,” where “xx” refers to any of a number of older versions of Microsoft’s desktop office utilities package (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). If I ask why there is this need, I … with a vague hand-waving argument in return.

We are in the age of the online world where many applications no longer need to live on a local computer. Call it cloud computing, if you will. Some of you who use Chromebooks … in this “world” for more than a decade.

Of course, there are still professional needs for desktop computing power for tasks such as video editing or for custom-created applications, perhaps in accounting and inventory control, but we are talking here about the … home user.

… forward, artificial intelligence applications will drive the nature of home computing devices.

The age of the CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (graphics processing unit) is quickly … with the NPU (neural processing unit), which is crucial to artificial intelligence commands processing.

This will only become more important as large language models (LLM), the present bread and butter of the AI industry, … by locally stored small language models (SLM) designed for specialized tasks.