This picture taken on January 23, 2023 in Toulouse, southwestern France, shows screens displaying the logos of OpenAI and ChatGPT. - ChatGPT is a conversational artificial intelligence software application developed by OpenAI.
OpenAI, the pioneering company behind ChatGPT and other powerful AI models, is looking into developing its own AI chips to alleviate the scarcity of AI hardware. Internal conversations have focused on possible solutions to this problem, including considering the acquisition of an AI chip maker, even though no formal decision has been taken.
The tech firm has been examining several possibilities since last year to address the shortage of expensive AI processors, which are essential to its operations, according to sources. These alternatives include developing and producing its own AI chips, enhancing partnerships with well-known chipmakers like Nvidia, and expanding its processors supply outside Nvidia.
When it comes to the plan of OpenAI to develop its own chips, the firm has kept mum and declined to make any public statements, according to Reuters.
AI Chips are In-Demand
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has underlined the necessity of obtaining more AI chips, citing worries about the dearth of cutting-edge processors that power OpenAI's state-of-the-art software and the prohibitive costs involved with maintaining the requisite hardware infrastructure.
ChatGPT and other OpenAI applications are expensive. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon estimates ChatGPT pays 4 cents for every inquiry. An initial investment of over $48.1 billion in GPUs would be needed to scale up to a small portion of Google's search activity, as well as an ongoing yearly chip cost of roughly $16 billion.
The GPU supply chain is under great stress due to the spike in demand for generative AI, which benefits GPU producers like Nvidia. Microsoft, a significant GPU user, has issued a warning about probable service interruptions caused by a serious lack of AI server hardware. In addition, high-performance AI processors from Nvidia apparently won't be ready until 2024.
The cost of utilizing these GPUs is high, but they are essential for operating and supplying OpenAI's AI models, which rely on cloud-based clusters of GPUs to manage client workloads.
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In its effort to develop its own AI processors, OpenAI is not acting alone. With Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) and Amazon's sale of custom processors for AI training and inferencing, IT behemoths like Google and Amazon have already entered this market. According to reports, Microsoft and AMD are developing the Athena internal AI processor, which OpenAI is testing.
OpenAI can invest heavily in R&D with over $11 billion in venture capital funding and sales approaching $1 billion yearly. The tech company is reportedly contemplating a share sale to increase its secondary-market valuation to $90 billion, according to TechCrunch.
Sam Altman Aims to Solve Climate Change Using AI
In related news, Sam Altman recently voiced his ideas on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on geoengineering's potential to tackle climate change.
i wish the world were studying solar geoengineering more.
clearly have misgivings about it, but it's so relatively cheap that i think some country is just going to do it if/when the climate crisis gets bad enough as a temporary patch.
would be great to learn more before then.— Sam Altman (@sama) October 5, 2023
According to VentureBeat, Altman underlined the need to research solar geoengineering, recognizing its potential as a practical means of reducing climate change. He was optimistic about future scientific breakthroughs, especially in exploration.
"The scientific discoveries of the coming few decades will be breathtaking," he tweeted.
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