MediaTek partners with Meta to elevate on-device generative AI in flagship phones

MediaTek is a Taiwanese semiconductor company established in 1997, known for making affordable chipsets for devices like smartphones and tablets. Its main rival, Qualcomm, recently announced that on-device generative AI, powered by Meta's Llama 2 large language model (LLM), will come to flagship phones in 2024. And now MediaTek also has news.

MediaTek is also jumping into the on-device generative AI game. The company announced its collaboration with Meta to enhance support for the Llama 2 LLM on phones using MediaTek's next-gen flagship processor. Unlike most generative AI that relies on cloud computing, MediaTek's use of Llama 2 models will let generative AI apps run directly on the device.

This promises advantages like smoother performance, enhanced privacy, better security, lower delay, operation in low-connectivity areas, and cost savings. MediaTek anticipates that Llama 2-enabled generative AI apps will be available on phones using its upcoming chipset, slated for release by the end of 2023.

The new flagship chipset will feature optimized software to run Llama 2 and an upgraded APU with Transformer backbone acceleration. This will lead to improved LLM and AIGC (AI-Generated Content) performance while using less space and DRAM (Dynamic Random-Access Memory) bandwidth.

Generative AI's growing popularity leads to digital transformation, and according to the company, MediaTek aims to empower Llama 2 developers and users with the necessary tools for AI innovation. JC Hsu, Corporate Senior Vice President and General Manager of Wireless Communications Business Unit at MediaTek stated, "Through our partnership with Meta, we can deliver hardware and software with far more capability in the edge than ever before."

MediaTek’s latest flagship chipset, the Dimensity 9200+, shows significant performance boosts, and with the next generation coming by the end of the year, we expect to see even more improvements. Stay tuned if you want to be the first to know which flagship smartphones will take advantage of it.