That space on the CPU die could have been extra cache or maybe even another core, speed up all computing tasks on the machine. But no, it's a fucking waste of space; not flexible enough to be used for general-purpose compute, not parallel enough to be used for a GPU, not enough RAM to run a local model. Got mine switched off in the BIOS just in case it improves battery life any.

Eh, I don't think NPUs are ready to be marketed so heavily, but they've been around for a while and do get used.

They're basically a rebranded tensor processing unit, think a more specialised GPU that's even more energy efficient at tensor/linear algebra.

It's mostly used in more technical applications, such as image/audio/video processing, machine learning, or really anything maths heavy. Apple's M series had NPUs, and are an understated reason why they perform extraordinarily well in a lot of scientific applications.

Uses for consumers are not as compelling (especially on laptop/desktop), mostly faster/more efficient subtitle generation, face recognition, and maybe blurring your zoom background.