AI is incredible, but expensive — the chips cost $30,000 and require tons of Energy. But AI may be about to get 100X cheaper.

Cheaper, Faster, Better

A research team at Northwestern University was able to perform complex AI tasks with 100 times less energy than current AI models. From the report:

Northwestern University engineers have developed a new nanoelectronic device that can perform accurate machine-learning classification tasks in the most energy-efficient manner yet. Using 100-fold less energy than current technologies, the device can crunch large amounts of data and perform artificial intelligence (AI) tasks in real time without beaming data to the cloud for analysis.

Mastering a Critical Dataset

The team tested it on ECG data, with incredible results:

To test the concept, engineers used the device to classify large amounts of information from publicly available electrocardiogram (ECG) datasets. Not only could the device efficiently and correctly identify an irregular heartbeat, it also was able to determine the arrhythmia subtype from among six different categories with near 95% accuracy.

The nanoelectronic device was able to identify accurately each arrhythmia type out of 10,000 ECG samples. By bypassing the need to send data to the cloud, the device not only saves critical time for a patient but also protects privacy.

So, How Does It Work?

The Northwestern team was able to do this using much less energy by using fewer transistors:

For current silicon-based technologies to categorize data from large sets like ECGs, it takes more than 100 transistors — each requiring its own energy to run. But Northwestern’s nanoelectronic device can perform the same machine-learning classification with just two devices. By reducing the number of devices, the researchers drastically reduced power consumption and developed a much smaller device that can be integrated into a standard wearable gadget.

Running AI models on huge data sets with basic chips and minimal energy saves a fortune.

No $30,000 chip to buy (if you can find one). No gigawatts of power to pay for.

What Happens When AI Costs Fall 99%?

If you make any product cheaper, people demand more of it. So what would a world with cheap, ubiquitous AI look like?

AI products could scale to millions of users without charging anything. Only the largest companies can do this today because the compute is so expensive.

AI tools might start to look more like consumer software: widely used, free, ad supported, and incredibly lucrative.

We could see more specialized LLM’s for specific tasks. These models may address the needs of certain industries better than ChatGPT or Bard do today.

Not having to find and pay for H100’s also means anyone with the skills can spin up an LLM.

With cheap AI, the developing world can get in on the game. Today, it’s not easy for a company in Botswana to pay that hefty Azure bill.

But if they could run a sophisticated AI model on a laptop, the company in the developing country can compete with the biggest in the world.

Wrap-Up

AI is improving productivity by the day. If it gets much cheaper, and sees much broader use, productivity will skyrocket.

That makes everyone’s life better.

Do you think this discovery will change computing? Leave a comment and let us know!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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