I'm not sure this result is that interesting. First, there's the assumption that Apple bothered optimizing their proprietary ML library for Intel as much as they did for their own M1 chip:

> Presumably, Apple has already done the work in optimizing CreateML for both for their Intel and M1 devices.

Second, the M1 is faster than the Intel Macbook with an integrated GPU. But the article also notes this, which makes the comparison apples and oranges IMO:

> Notably, training was unable to take advantage of the integrated Intel Iris graphics card to accelerate training but it was able to partially utilize the integrated graphics card on the M1.

Third, the M1 lags the Intel with the discrete Radeon GPU, where the GPU is being utilized. But this is not exactly a surprising result. Nor is it a comparison against the state of the art. What matters more practically is a comparison between an M1 Macbook Pro and a leading competing laptop with a discrete nvidia GPU.