Daniel D. Gutierrez, Editor-in-Chief & Resident Knowledge Scientist, insideAI Information, is a working towards information scientist who’s been working with information lengthy earlier than the sphere got here in vogue. He’s particularly enthusiastic about carefully following the Generative AI revolution that’s going down. As a expertise journalist, he enjoys retaining a pulse on this fast-paced business.
At all times trying ahead to an opportunity to return to my dwelling away from dwelling of Silicon Valley, I jumped on the alternative to attend my first-ever {hardware} centered convention, the 2024 AI Hardware and Edge AI placed on by Kisaco Research (#AIHardware2024). The occasion came about Sept. 9-12, 2024 in lovely San Jose, Calif., the guts of Silicon Valley. I used to be wanting to be taught what improvements have been going down on the {hardware} facet of AI. Boy, I wasn’t disenchanted! You largely hear about all the brand new advances in GenAI mannequin growth, however I see now that we’ll be listening to much more concerning the quick-paced evolution of AI accelerated {hardware} to assist these rising fashions at scale. AI {hardware} is advancing rapidly and I’m not speaking about NVIDIA Blackwell!
After choosing up my badge, I checked my schedule of chosen periods to attend, after which instinctively headed into the expo corridor containing all the businesses exhibiting new applied sciences. I knew kibitzing with the seller of us readily available would yield the most effective use of my time on the present. I realized SO a lot after talking to many of the corporations current.
Possibly crucial factor I realized, and one thing I stored listening to time and again, is that “{hardware} is cool once more.” It’s because GenAI coaching and inference have hit considerably of a brick wall. In spite of everything, what number of GPUs can you purchase? The great factor is I spoke to many corporations which might be considering exterior of the field by creating alternate options to the GPU, every with a major functionality vector and expertise density – assume Cerebras, Furiosa, SambaNova, Groq, NeuReality, Etched, plus many others. NVIDIA has a present stranglehold over coaching (90%) and inference (40%), so the business is ripe for change. Most of the new accelerated AI {hardware} options cater to inferencing – as they are saying, coaching is the way you make AI and inferencing is how you utilize AI. The primary factor I gathered from attending this convention is that change is within the wind. NVIDIA higher begin trying over its shoulder as a result of very quickly now the corporate may have severe competitors (to not point out the corporate’s antitrust worries).
Enjoying my position as member of the Press, I make a degree of constructing observations. One factor I seen was the variety of job interviews going down through the present. I noticed quite a few stand-up interviews going down proper exterior the assembly rooms. Moreover, I witnessed quite a few strategic conferences going down between firm principals, companions, and traders. In darkish corners of the lodge foyer bar space, I overheard plans involving new merchandise, integrations, collaborations, and funding rounds. It was fairly invigorating to witness all the joy, with reminiscences of the heady days of the previous, and it led me to the view for the way vibrant the AI {hardware} house has change into recently.
You’ll find quite a few recorded speaker shows from the AI {Hardware} & Edge AI Summit HERE.
Location and Venue
Silicon Valley was the suitable location for the convention as many of the corporations with their new AI {hardware} options have been native to the realm.
The 1,300+ attendees have been housed in a single venue, the Signia by Hilton Hotel on Market Road. Your complete 2nd flooring of the lodge’s assembly space was dedicated to the present. This house appeared nicely sized for all involved. Plus, this lodge was significantly high-tech – I by no means needed to work together with any human throughout my complete keep as my reserving was 100% managed by the lodge’s app (I didn’t even want a key for my room, the app unlocked my door when wanted!).
The Exhibition Corridor
The exhibition corridor was the point of interest of the convention. It was routinely full of corporations of their cubicles together with attendees. As well as, there have been overflow cubicles exterior the corridor within the adjoining hallways. Strolling by the convention space, it at all times appeared jammed which to me and this elevated the joy.
Here’s a hand-selected short list of corporations from the convention that I previewed earlier.
The limitless espresso and snacks within the expo corridor have been enormously appreciated. One of many few criticisms I had for the occasion was the full lack of seating to fulfill with corporations, colleagues, new pals, and even to eat lunch. I seen that many attendees needed to sneak downstairs with their lunch plates/drinks to the lodge foyer to discover a place to sit down down.
Interviews
My essential goal in attending the AI {Hardware} & Edge AI Summit was to conduct quite a few video interviews with representatives from these corporations: Intel Labs, Nscale, MinIO, Hitachi Ventures, Ericsson, and Unilever. Every interview will floor right here on insideAI Information as an upcoming function article. The entire interviewees have been wonderful and such good representatives for his or her respective corporations. All of them exhibited huge data of their specialised subject material. I realized loads by interviewing them (and I hope you’ll too!).
The Highway House
I had a good time at this convention. I feel the timeliness of the {hardware} focus for AI was the most important attraction. I absolutely intend to do a deep dive on lots of the corporations I met with. I got here away with a brand new and improved perspective for the way the sphere of AI is advancing.
Ready for my flight dwelling at San Jose Mineta Worldwide Airport (SJC), I felt like I’ll miss “The Valley” as soon as once more till my subsequent journey up north (I’m primarily based in Los Angeles). I’m by no means disenchanted with what I take with me when visiting the singular place on Earth the place a lot of AI originates.
I’d extremely suggest this occasion to anybody within the AI house, or needing to enter it. Getting a {hardware} perspective is necessary now that {hardware} is cool once more! I imagine I’ll have so as to add this occasion to my checklist of annual conferences for certain!
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