Intel, Facebook tie up to develop chips for AI
LAGUNA BEACH, US — Intel chief Brian Krzanich said Tuesday his company is working on a super-fast chip designed specifically for artificial intelligence (AI).
The chipmaking giant is partnering with Facebook and other Internet titans investing heavily in AI to create the first in what will be a family of 鈥淣ervana Neural Network Processors鈥 tailored to the needs of the emerging technology, Mr. Krzanich said during an on-stage interview at the WSJD Live conference.
鈥淚 think we are just at the beginning of a transformation,鈥 Mr. Krzanich said while discussing why Intel was betting on AI.
鈥淎rtificial intelligence is going to be similar to what the internet was back in the 1990s.鈥
Chips designed for AI need to deftly handle massive amounts of data and sensor input in real time.
Cloud services have been a hotbed for AI innovation, so Intel has partnered with Facebook and other companies in that arena to build a chip tailored from the ground up to meet those needs, according to Mr. Krzanich.
鈥淭his is the first piece of silicon,鈥 Mr. Krzanich said. 鈥淲e have a whole family planned for this, (Facebook) is helping us, along with others, as to where this is going.鈥
In a separate blog post on Intel鈥檚 Web site, Mr. Krzanich said he believes these new chips will enabled 鈥渘ew classes of AI applications鈥 to help transform health care, social media, automobiles, and weather forecasting, among others.
The new chip has been in the works for more than three years, and the first member of the new family is expected to start shipping 鈥渟oon,鈥 according to an online post by Naveen Rao, a cofounder of deep-learning start-up Nervana which was bought by Intel in 2016.
鈥淲e designed the Intel Nervana NNP to free us from the limitations imposed by existing hardware, which wasn鈥檛 explicitly designed for AI,鈥 Rao said.
Intel, which has been expanding beyond its core of personal computer chips in that sagging market, is keen for its technology to be an engine powering artificial intelligence and self-driving systems.
Intel announced in September that its computing tech is being loaded into Waymo self-driving minivans as the chip giant seeks a leading position on the road to autonomous vehicles. — AFP
