On September 8th, the chief executive officer of Arm saidAIPerhaps it will help mankind to conquer our generationcancerI don't know. However, before this can be achieved, the whole industry needs to address a real problem: producing enough chips to AI Provision requiredHashrate.
"I've always thought that the real subversive application of AI is medical health." Arm CEO Rene Haas said in a video interview with BBC published on Tuesday of local time, “AI will not only reduce the time required for drug development, but also for drug testing.”
Haas joined the British chip design company in 2013 and became Arm CEO in February 2022. Before joining Arm, he worked seven years in Inverda as Vice-President of Calculator Products Operations。
IN THE INTERVIEW, HAAS SAID THAT AI HAD THE POTENTIAL TO SOLVE SOME OF THE PROBLEMS THAT HUMANS ALONE COULD NOT OVERCOME. AND HE SAID, "I BELIEVE THAT, IN OUR LIFETIME, AI WILL HELP HUMANS FIGHT CANCER."
HAS NOTED, HOWEVER, THAT TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL, A MASSIVE COMPUTING CAPACITY IS REQUIRED. AT PRESENT, THE CHIPS NEEDED FOR CANCER RESEARCH AND HUMAN ROBOTICS DEVELOPMENT ARE BEING CONSUMED IN LARGE QUANTITIES BY AI, WHICH IS PLANNING TO BUILD A DIGITAL DATA CENTRE。
“At present, the supply of computing power is indeed very limited. Before we can build a data centre into space, we need more round mills, and I can tell you that clearly.” “We may only really begin to build data centres into space when the greatest constraint of the data centres becomes the cost of the data centres themselves”, said Hass
HAS INDICATED THAT THE SIZE OF AI'S DEMAND FOR CHIPS AND MEMORY IS A LEVEL THAT THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY HAS NEVER EXPERIENCED IN THE PAST. THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW ROUND PLANT WOULD ALSO NOT SOLVE THE SUPPLY PROBLEM QUICKLY, AS IT MIGHT COST TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, AND THE CONSTRUCTION CYCLE WOULD NORMALLY TAKE TWO TO THREE YEARS。
He indicated that the semiconductor industry was currently in an “absolute supply-restricted environment” and that the stress on the availability of chips was expected to continue for some time。
EVEN IF THE CHIP SUPPLY BOTTLENECKS ARE RESOLVED, THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT AI WILL BE ABLE TO HELP PEOPLE WITH CANCER IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS. MEDICAL RESEARCHERS POINT OUT THAT CANCER IS NOT A SINGLE DISEASE, BUT A LARGE GROUP OF DISEASES CONSISTING OF MORE THAN 100 DISEASES, AND THAT CANCERS VARY GREATLY FROM PATIENT TO PATIENT。
AI DOES HELP RESEARCHERS TO IDENTIFY POTENTIAL DRUG TARGETS AND PREDICT THE POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF DRUGS, BUT EVIDENCE THAT AI HAS A REAL IMPACT ON CLINICAL CARE REMAINS LIMITED. IN ADDITION, THE LARGE NUMBER OF VARIABLES WITHIN EACH INDIVIDUAL MAKES IT VERY DIFFICULT FOR THE AI MODEL TO PREDICT RELIABLY THE EFFECTS OF A CANDIDATE DRUG WHEN IT ENTERS THE HUMAN BODY。
Data centre construction boom
Other chip executives have issued similar warnings。
The Chief Operator of American Light Technology, Manish Bhatia, interviewed in January this year, stated that the current memory deficit was “unprecedented”. He noted that the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) required for the AI accelerator was taking up so much of its production capacity that traditional products, such as mobile phones and personal computers, faced a “grave supply shortage”。
In February of this year, Cristiano Amon said that “the industry-wide memory deficit and price increases” will determine the size of the mobile market this year. He also noted that “the whole industry was affected by memory supply”。
In recent years, the United States data centre has expanded rapidly. By the end of last year, over 1,400 data centres had been built or approved in the United States。
The impact on local air quality and water resources has become increasingly controversial as data centres continue to reach communities。
1AI NOTES THAT A SURVEY RELEASED IN MAY THIS YEAR BY GALLOP IN THE UNITED STATES SHOWED THAT 70 PER CENT OF THE 1,000 ADULTS SURVEYED WERE OPPOSED TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AI DATA CENTRE IN THEIR AREA. NEARLY HALF OF THE RESPONDENTS STATED THAT THEY “STRONGLY OPPOSED” THE CONSTRUCTION OF SUCH DATA CENTRES。