How Nvidia created the chip powering the generative AI boom Financial Times Some snippets from FT piece here on software approach cost structure and user base. Nvidia originally focussed on software for chip development supporting gaming GPU. This was a prescient shift. Nvidia now has more software engineers than hardware engineers to enable it to support the many different kinds of AI frameworks that have emerged in the subsequent years and make its chips more efficient at the statistical computation needed to train AI models. Hopper was the first architecture optimised for “transformers”, the approach to AI that underpins OpenAI’s … Continue reading How Nvidia created the chip powering the generative AI boom

Link I post the transcript of the Google data scientists on the topic of medicine and AI. What struck me is the different ways required to think about data in a LLM (Large Language Model) context. I see and hear no exclusions; only inclusion. Then there is the concept of a unit. They did not dwell there but I see the challenge in how to store data for retrieval in ways that retain context or multiple contexts. At one point they talk of the sheer computing power needed and how Google provides that aspect with relative ease. Some thoughts on … Continue reading Google’s Exploration of Large Language Models in Medicine

The Star runs this piece on job impacts from AI. It is a good piece categorizing impacts on job sectors and a view that young people considering eduction and those in long time roles would do well to to consider retraining and moving to stay ahead. Because rest assure the changes are coming. See it below this post. However I like to stand back and consider what is going on and understand the unintended consequences of the AI shift over coming decades. The Star piece focusses (in my view) on the impacts from ChatGPT and its evolution in role replacement. … Continue reading How should we think about impact on jobs – AI-Episode 2 (AI-E2)

Start-Ups Bring Silicon Valley Ethos to a Lumbering Military-Industrial Complex By Eric Lipton Small, fast-moving U.S. tech firms are using the war in Ukraine to demonstrate a new generation of military systems but face the challenge of selling them to a risk-averse Defense Department. The U.S. Needs Minerals for Electric Cars. Everyone Else Wants Them Too. By Ana Swanson The United States is entering an array of agreements to secure the critical minerals necessary for the energy transition, but it’s not clear which of the arrangements can succeed. France’s Latest Way to Sound Anger Over Pensions Law: Saucepans By Constant … Continue reading NYT Top News 2023-05-22

Start-Ups Bring Silicon Valley Ethos to a Lumbering Military-Industrial Complex By Eric Lipton Small, fast-moving U.S. tech firms are using the war in Ukraine to demonstrate a new generation of military systems but face the challenge of selling them to a risk-averse Defense Department. The U.S. Needs Minerals for Electric Cars. Everyone Else Wants Them Too. By Ana Swanson The United States is entering an array of agreements to secure the critical minerals necessary for the energy transition, but it’s not clear which of the arrangements can succeed. France’s Latest Way to Sound Anger Over Pensions Law: Saucepans By Constant … Continue reading NYT Top News 2023-05-22

Executive summary 1. Artificial intelligence (AI) is already delivering wide societal benefits, from medical advances[footnote 1] to mitigating climate change.[footnote 2] For example, an AI technology developed by DeepMind, a UK-based business, can now predict the structure of almost every protein known to science.[footnote 3] This breakthrough will accelerate scientific research and the development of life-saving medicines – it has already helped scientists to make huge progress in combating malaria, antibiotic resistance, and plastic waste. 2. The UK Science and Technology Framework[footnote 4] sets out government’s strategic vision and identifies AI as one of 5 critical technologies. The framework notes … Continue reading Artificial intelligence – the opportunity and the challenge

China bans Micron’s products from key infrastructure over security risk FT reports China said that US chipmaker Micron Technology’s products posed “serious network security risks” as it banned operators of key infrastructure from buying them, in its first big measure against an American semiconductor group. The Cyberspace Administration of China on Sunday announced that the company, which is the biggest US maker of memory chips, “posed significant security risks to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain”. As a result, it ordered “critical national infrastructure operators” to stop purchasing products from Idaho-based Micron. The move follows a seven-week investigation into Micron … Continue reading China bans Micron’s products from key infrastructure over security risk

The Times are reporting a warning from top educators on the dangers they see emanating from AI. Such warnings are becoming frequent from others including Harari in the Economist, Elon Musk and even Sam Altman head of OpenAI. This got me thinking about an attempt to capture the current state of fear and doom from AI. Here is version 1. The evolving position on AI There are broadly views from three groups covered here: Some deeper review will come later on Harari, and the Musk, Altman et al group. Nature of broad risks I see being identified, although Fear of … Continue reading AI ‘is clear and present danger to education’ – The Times