This article was published on March 13, 2024
Scaling Compute is open for funding applications
Computing power to develop artificial intelligence does not come cheap. While you can build a simple AI chatbot for next to nothing, training a fine-tuned model on large data sets can cost millions of dollars. In order to lower the costs associated with training AI the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency, or ARIA, has launched a programme called Scaling Compute.
The initiative is committing £42mn to find new, more economic alternatives to the energy-intensive hardware currently utilised to support the explosion in demand for compute driven by the arrival of generative AI. And it is encouraging funding applicants to look to processes in nature for inspiration, as well as biological material alternatives to silicone. The programme’s director, Suraj Bramhavar, says that while the evolution of our digital universe thus far has relied on the fact that computers have gotten progressively cheaper and faster over time, this is no longer the case. “This trend is coming up against physical limits,” Bramhavar said in a statement , adding that the current cost of training AI is having far-reaching societal and geopolitical implications. “The remarkable thing about AI is that all these incredible capabilities that we have seen really rely on a very narrow set of algorithms, and an even narrower set of underlying hardware,” he continued. “And they have worked phenomenally well, and scale phenomenally well.” However, Bramhavar is convinced that there are a variety of alternatives that can do the same thing that we are yet to explore. The programme, he said, will be reexamining things like how we separate compute and memory and the way chips interconnect, taking inspiration from nature and the human brain.
Globally accessible AI at a fraction of the cost?
It will also look at hardware material, potentially finding other biological alternatives to silicone semiconductors on which to run AI.
This, the institute hopes, will create additional levers to scale computing infrastructure — at lesser economic and environmental costs. The ambition is to reduce the costs for training AI by a factor of 1,000.
“If successful, this programme will leapfrog well past the current limits of computing power and efficiency, and . . . pave the way for globally accessible, safe, and transformative AI,” Ilan Gur, ARIA chief executive, told the Financial Times .
Linnea is the senior editor at TNW, having joined in April 2023. She has an Ma in international relations and covers quantum, AI, and the ev (show all) Linnea is the senior editor at TNW, having joined in April 2023. She has an Ma in international relations and covers quantum, AI, and the evolving concept of 'technological sovereignty'. Dabbles in gaming and fitness wearables. But first, coffee.