I'm not sure this is true, even in the short term. For some things yes, that's definitely true. But for other things that are real-time or near real-time where network latency would be unacceptable, we're already there. For example, Google's Pixel 8 launch includes real-time audio processing/enhancing which is made possible by their new Tensor chip.

I'm no fan of Apple, but I think they're on the right path with local AI. It may even be possible that the tendency of other device makers to put AI in the cloud might give Apple a much better user experience, unless Google can start thinking local-first which kind of goes against their grain.

Agreed. Something else I wonder is if local AI in mobile devices might be better able to learn from its real-time interactions with the physical world than datacenter-based AI.

It's walking around in the world with a human with all its various sensors recording in real-time (unless disabled) - mic, camera, GPS/location, LiDAR, barometer, gyro, accelerometer, proximity, ambient light, etc. Then the human uses it to interact with the world too in various ways.

All that data can of course be quickly sent to a datacenter too, and integrated into the core system there, so maybe not. But I'm curious about this difference and wonder what advantages local AI might eventually confer.

GPS, phone orientation, last 5 apps you were in, etc. --> embedding

you might even have like "what time is it?" compressed as it's own embedding.