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What’s happening in AI right now

The AI chip race heats up: challenging Nvidia's Dominance

Cerebras Systems, a US startup, has thrown down the gauntlet with its Wafer Scale Engine (WSE) processors, claiming to outperform Nvidia's GPUs by a factor of 20 at just one-fifth the cost. This bold move comes at a time when the AI chip market is experiencing unprecedented growth, driven by the surging demand for generative AI applications.

Shifting sands in Silicon Valley

Nvidia is a company riding high on the AI boom. Analysts projected doubled earnings and tripled revenue compared to last year, primarily fueled by skyrocketing demand for AI chips and data center services. This stellar performance has catapulted Nvidia into the ranks of the world's most valuable companies, with a market cap now exceeding $3 trillion.

However, Cerebras is not content to let Nvidia rest on its laurels. The startup's WSE-3 chip, boasting a staggering 4 trillion transistors and 900,000 AI cores, represents a significant leap in processing power. By introducing its Cerebras Inference service for generative AI programs and adopting an aggressive pricing model, the company is positioning itself as a serious contender in the market.

The implications of this competition extend far beyond Silicon Valley. As AI continues to permeate various industries, from healthcare to finance, the availability of more powerful and cost-effective chips could accelerate innovation and democratize access to advanced AI capabilities. This shift could lead to more rapid development of AI applications across sectors, potentially reshaping how businesses operate and compete.

The global computing divide

While the battle for chip supremacy rages in the United States, recent research has unveiled a stark global disparity in the distribution of advanced AI chips. This digital divide threatens to exacerbate existing inequalities and concentrate AI development power in the hands of a few nations.

The study reveals that only 30 countries have a significant presence of GPU clusters, with the United States and China leading the pack. This imbalance creates what researchers term a "Compute North" with advanced infrastructure, a "Compute South" with older chips, and "Compute Deserts" lacking access to GPUs entirely.

This disparity has far-reaching implications. Countries hosting advanced AI infrastructure wield greater power to shape AI development and regulations, potentially leaving others at a significant disadvantage. As AI becomes increasingly central to economic growth and technological progress, this imbalance could reinforce and amplify existing global inequities.

News roundup

The top stories in AI today.

FUTURE OF WORK

Jobs are changing — are you?

• How Higher Education Must Prepare for the Age of AI

• More and More Americans Believe AI Will Negatively Impact Jobs

• Experts Debate the Future of LLMs — Optimization or Radical Transformation?

• Want to Make an App But Don’t Know How to Code? Try Cursor

• Sweden’s Klarna Attributes Reduced Headcount to AI Chatbot Efficiencies

NEW LAUNCHES

The latest features & products in AI innovation.

• New Book ‘AI Mirror’ Asks What It Means To Be Human In The Age of AI

• AI-Powered Upscayl Transforms Low-Res Images for Free

• Tesla Unveils Groundbreaking AI Networking Protocol for Dojo Supercomputer

• AI Video Generator Hotshot Debuts with Free Clips — Here’s How to Try It

• How NVIDIA’s AI Blueprint Is Accelerating The Drug Discovery Process

SEMICONDUCTORS

Research, distribution, launches & more

• What to Expect from Nvidia’s Upcoming Earnings Report

• AI Startup Cerebras Challenges Nvidia With 20x Faster Chips

• Qualcomm Aims to Bring AI to Low-Cost Phones with Snapdragon 7s Gen 3

• Xmems Labs is Making Tiny Fans to ‘Micro-Cool’ AI Chips

GADGETS

Computers, phones, wearables & other AI gizmos.

• Smartphone Maker Honor’s “AI Defocus Display” Is a Game-Changer for Eye Health

• Amazon’s AI-Enhanced Alexa Expected To Come With These 5 New Features

• Samsung Expands 7-Year Software Support to AI-Integrated Smart TVs

• Google Gemini May Soon Integrate with WhatsApp and Android Notifications

• AI-Powered Pixel Features Falter on Unlocked Devices

GOVERNMENT

Press releases, regulation, defense & politics.

• New Research Explores Global Divide in AI Chip Ownership

• California Lawmakers Advance Bill to Protect Performers from AI Replicas

• Kamala Harris Camp Denies Using AI Version of Trump to Prepare For Debate

• Deepfakes and The AI-Driven Truth Crisis

• AI Deepfakes Spark Urgent Call for FEC Election Regulations

• North Korean Hackers Exploit AI to Infiltrate US Tech Jobs

• AI Boosts 911 Response in Colorado County

AI research changing the world

The latest breakthroughs and most pivotal papers — broken down in language anyone can understand.

Meta's Llama 3: the open-source AI that's reshaping the future of work

Imagine a world where AI doesn't just respond to queries but actively collaborates on complex projects, speaks multiple languages fluently, and seamlessly integrates text, speech, and visual understanding. This isn't science fiction—it's the reality that Meta's new Llama 3 AI model is ushering in, according to a groundbreaking research report from the tech giant. With its largest variant boasting a staggering 405 billion parameters and the ability to process up to 128,000 tokens of context, Llama 3 is pushing the boundaries of what's possible in artificial intelligence. The report reveals that Llama 3 outperforms humans on college-level exams, demonstrates unprecedented multilingual capabilities across 34 languages, and showcases remarkable prowess in coding and complex reasoning tasks. But the implications go far beyond academic achievements.

This open-source release could democratize access to advanced AI technologies, potentially revolutionizing industries from healthcare to finance, and accelerating scientific discoveries in ways we've only dreamed of. As businesses and researchers begin to harness the power of Llama 3, we're likely to see a surge in AI-driven innovation that could reshape the global workforce and redefine human-AI collaboration. However, this technological leap also raises important questions about job displacement, ethical AI use, and the need for new governance frameworks. As we stand on the brink of this AI revolution, one can't help but wonder: How will society adapt to a world where AI can not only think and communicate at human levels but potentially surpass them in many domains?

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