Upcoming Apple event could bring iPad Pro focused on new AI features, report says

New tablet could also feature an entirely new chip

(Getty Images)

Apple’s new iPads could be marketed as AI devices, according to a new report.

The company is holding a special event next week, its first of the year. It is widely expected to update the iPad line-up, which has not seen any kind of upgrades since 2022.

That is rumoured to include a new version of the iPad Air and the iPad Pro. At the moment, both of those tablets use chips that were first built for the Mac, but neither has been updated for some time.

Now, Apple is planning on giving the iPad Pro the first of a new generation of chips intended for the Mac. It will include the M4, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Apple is yet to introduce any kind of M4 to its Macs. The previous generation M3 was only revealed late last year, and the MacBook Air was only upgraded to include that chip last month.

What’s more, the M4 will be specifically targeted at artificial intelligence, the Bloomberg report claimed. It will include an upgraded Neural Engine, the part of the chip optimised to work on machine learning, it said.

That is alongside other much longer rumoured upgrades including a new design that will move the camera, an OLED display, and new versions of the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil.

For some time, even as the current hype over AI was beginning, Apple was resistant to even using the phrase artificial intelligence. At its Worldwide Developers Conference event last year, for instance, it did not mention it at all.

In recent times, however, that has changed. When it announced the MacBook Air last month, it said that it is the “world’s best consumer laptop for AI”, pointing to devoted hardware in its new chip.

And more AI updates are thought to be on their way. Apple’s WWDC is expected to bring a whole host of new artificial intelligence features this year, and the company’s marketing head announced the event on X/Twitter, in a tweet that said it would be “Absolutely Incredible”, with capital letters that are thought to be a clue to the theme of the event.