Intel has updated its AI Playground app, initially released in July 2024, to showcase the capabilities of running AI tasks on its latest Intel Core Ultra 200V (Lunar Lake) series processors.
Designed to run AI entirely on supported systems, the app takes advantage of the chipmaker's built-in AI accelerators and Arc GPUs.
Available as a free download, AI Playground is optimized for Intel Core Ultra PCs with integrated Intel Arc GPUs or discrete Intel Arc graphics cards with 8 GB of memory. The latest version includes installers for the Intel Core Ultra 200V (1.21b) and Ultra-H (1.01b) series, as well as Intel Arc dGPUs.
New features
For many Windows 11 users, Microsoft Copilot will be their main, perhaps only, AI experience, but privacy concerns have been raised over its controversial recovery feature and potential data sharing.
AI Playground keeps all processing on-device, offering a more private and secure alternative for users wary of cloud-based AI.
The app is designed to help users explore and understand the benefits of AI and Tom Hardware He compares it to how Microsoft added Solitaire to early versions of Windows to help users get used to the mouse. Whether there is a need for such an application comes down to whether Intel can demonstrate real-world value beyond simply showing off its technology, and the jury is out on that right now.
The main modes of the application (Create, Improve and Respond) offer a number of tools. Create mode generates images from text prompts using SD1.5 or SDXL models, while Enhance mode supports zooming, inner painting, and outer painting for complex image edits. Response mode works as a local chatbot that can process documents and answer queries, maintaining data privacy by operating entirely on the user's device.
The new update introduces features designed for Ultra 200V processors, such as an exclusive theme and an improved LLM Picker preloaded with models such as Phi3, Qwen2 and Mistral.
Users can also install their own native PyTorch LLMs, as long as they are compatible with Transformer version 4.39. The new version also includes a Conversation Manager for saving chat sessions, a font size adjustment tool, and a preset aspect ratio picker to streamline image creation.
To learn more about the AI Playground project, you can go to their GitHub page or join the Intel Insiders Discord.