Big news this week in AI, AI startups, AI research and AI funding. This is the first sections. See the rest at Nextbigfuture substack.
1. AI Data center plans and nuclear power.
2. OpenAI DevDay.
3. AI Research
4. Blackrock and Microsoft have a new $30 Billion AI Infrastructure fund
5. Aptos partners with Ignition AI Accelerator (backed by NVIDIA and others)
6. Major recent AI funding announcements including OpenAI
1. AI Data center plans and nuclear power.
OpenAI’s Infrastructure Needs: OpenAI has discussed with the US government administration the need for massive AI data centers. Plans hinting at data centers each with a capacity of up to 5 GW (gigawatts), would scale AI data centers that are several times the current capacity of large cities. OpenAI wants to bjuild 5-7 of the super large AI data centers.
Oracle’s Zettascale Plans Oracle announced at an event (#OCW24) the creation of the first zettascale OCI Supercluster, powered by NVIDIA’s Blackwell platform. This supercluster aims to allow customers to train and deploy next-generation AI models at an unprecedented scale. It could be years away.
AI and Nuclear Power: There’s a trend towards integrating AI data centers with nuclear power. META’s AI chief mentioned building data centers next to nuclear power plants, suggesting a move to secure stable and high-capacity energy sources for AI operations. This comes alongside Microsoft’s power purchase agreement for nuclear energy, signaling a broader industry move towards nuclear power for sustainability and capacity reasons.
2. At OpenAI DevDay.
Realtime API: This new feature allows for nearly real-time, speech-to-speech interactions, providing developers with the tools to create seamless voice-based applications. This API supports low-latency multimodal experiences, making voice interactions more natural and accessible.
OpenAI announces Vision fine-tuning This allows developers to use images to fine tune models and improve results.
OpenAI announces Prompt caching This makes developing your apps a lot cheaper, automatically giving a 50% discount for every input the model has already received.
Model Distillation: This process allows developers to create smaller, more cost-effective models by distilling the knowledge from larger, more complex models like GPT-4o into smaller versions like GPT-4o mini. This makes deploying AI in resource-constrained environments more feasible without significantly compromising on capabilities.
Cost Reductions: There’s been a significant focus on making AI development more affordable. For instance, OpenAI announced a dramatic reduction in costs for using their APIs, which includes free training tokens for a limited time to encourage developers to experiment with the new features.
Audio Input/Output in Chat Completions API: For developers not needing the real-time benefits of the Realtime API, OpenAI also enhanced the Chat Completions API with audio capabilities, allowing for voice interactions at a potentially lower cost.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.