US Is Cutting China Off From AI Chips

PLUS: Nvidia Foxconn AI Factories Announcement

Author

Papercut
October 22, 2023

Happy National Apple Day!

 

The tech rivalry between the world’s two largest economies has been heating up 🔥 

Go grab your popcorn and read on 🍿 

  • US unveiled new rules to further tighten export controls

  • Baidu directly compares its ERNIE 4.0 to GPT-4

  • Nvidia and Foxconn to build “AI factories”

  • Weekly productivity hacks

  • Quick snips of other AI updates

Read time: 6 minutes 

                      FOCUS OF THE WEEK

Image source: Rappler

The Biden administration is intensifying restrictions on semiconductor exports to China and 21 other countries to protect national security.

Advanced artificial intelligence chips, including Nvidia's products, will be affected. While the measures are designed to curtail China's access to advanced computing chips and military technology.

⚡️Insights:

Nvidia’s stock plunged post-announcement, considering business in mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for 22% of the company’s revenue last year.

What’s more, >95% of such chips used in China are designed by U.S. semiconductor companies, basically choking off China’s access to the technology.

Is the new strategy going to be effective in the “New Cold War”? Or is China’s rising technology level actually unstoppable? Let’s see how US’s bet on this critical historic juncture works out.

🧠Extended reads:

Image source: CNN News

Baidu unveiled their AI model ERNIE Bot, claiming that it can perform as well as GPT-4. ERNIE Bot has already attracted over 45 million users in China.

Baidu faces competition within China, from tech peers such as Alibaba (BABA) and SenseTime (0020.HK), which have also shown off their own ChatGPT-lookalikes.

⚡️Insights:

Worries loom over long-term & structural issues such as US chip sanctions, which could impede further development within Baidu and China. The company, however, has not directly addressed the worries.

It does feel like even the biggest tech companies in China need to tread carefully between siding with China and complying to the US.

Image source: BBC

These AI facilities will serve as new-age data centers powered by Nvidia chips, catering to various applications:

  • AI-powered EV

  • robotics platforms

  • large language models

Foxconn is also developing its smart solution platforms based on Nvidia technologies:

⚡️Insights:

These are essentially rivals to Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer.

Dojo trains Tesla’s neural nets, which are used to power, train and improve “full self-driving” (or FSD, Tesla’s driver assistance system).

In the near future, it should come as no surprise if companies are racing to build the first AI factory within their respective industry, taking data input and outputting intelligence for further business opportunities. 

                      PRODUCTIVITY HACKS
❝

If there are nine rabbits on the ground and you want to catch one, just focus on one.

                        ROAST PROFILES

Anti-ChatGPT app Superfy uses AI to match people for live chats and answers to queries

The founders imagined a way to use AI technology to match users in real time with relevant people to answer their questions — that is, instead of typing questions into a search engine or chatting with ChatGPT, Superfy users could talk to real people to get answers and advice.

Superfy is backed by $5 million in funding plus an additional $1.5 million in grants from the Israeli Innovation Authority (IIA).

  

                         QUICK SNIPS

Google takes aim at Duolingo with new English tutoring tool - Link

Adobe Leading Future Design With New Generative AI Models - Link

China Targets Generative AI Data Security With Fresh Regulatory Proposals - Link

New York City unveils an ‘artificial intelligence action plan’ - Link

Embodied AI spins a pen and helps clean the living room in new research - Link

That’s It! Catch Y’all Same Time Next Week!