Daniel D. Gutierrez, Editor-in-Chief & Resident Information Scientist, insideAI Information, is a working towards information scientist who’s been working with information lengthy earlier than the sector 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 maintaining a pulse on this fast-paced trade.
All the time wanting ahead to an opportunity to return to my house away from house of Silicon Valley, I jumped on the alternative to attend my first-ever {hardware} targeted convention, the 2024 AI Hardware and Edge AI placed on by Kisaco Research (#AIHardware2024). The occasion happened Sept. 9-12, 2024 in lovely San Jose, Calif., the center of Silicon Valley. I used to be wanting to study what improvements have been going down on the {hardware} aspect of AI. Boy, I wasn’t disillusioned! You largely hear about all the brand new advances in GenAI mannequin improvement, however I see now that we’ll be listening to much more in regards to the quick-paced evolution of AI accelerated {hardware} to help these rising fashions at scale. AI {hardware} is advancing shortly 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 people available would yield the most effective use of my time on the present. I discovered SO a lot after chatting with a lot of the corporations current.
Perhaps a very powerful factor I discovered, and one thing I stored listening to again 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 nice factor is I spoke to many corporations which are pondering outdoors of the field by creating alternate options to the GPU, every with a big 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 trade 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 employ AI. The primary factor I gathered from attending this convention is that change is within the wind. NVIDIA higher begin wanting over its shoulder as a result of very quickly now the corporate may have critical competitors (to not point out the corporate’s antitrust worries).
Taking part in 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 in the course of the present. I noticed a variety of stand-up interviews going down proper outdoors the assembly rooms. Moreover, I witnessed a variety of strategic conferences going down between firm principals, companions, and buyers. 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 thrill, with recollections of the heady days of the previous, and it led me to the view for the way vibrant the AI {hardware} house has grow to be these days.
Yow will discover a variety of recorded speaker shows from the AI {Hardware} & Edge AI Summit HERE.
Location and Venue
Silicon Valley was the suitable location for the convention as a lot of the corporations with their new AI {hardware} options have been native to the world.
The 1,300+ attendees have been housed in a single venue, the Signia by Hilton Hotel on Market Road. The whole 2nd ground of the lodge’s assembly space was dedicated to the present. This house appeared effectively sized for all involved. Plus, this lodge was notably high-tech – I by no means needed to work together with any human throughout my total 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 filled with corporations of their cubicles together with attendees. As well as, there have been overflow cubicles outdoors the corridor within the adjoining hallways. Strolling via the convention space, it at all times appeared jammed which to me and this elevated the thrill.
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 vastly appreciated. One of many few criticisms I had for the occasion was the whole lack of seating to satisfy with corporations, colleagues, new associates, 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 principal objective in attending the AI {Hardware} & Edge AI Summit was to conduct a variety of 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 discovered so much by interviewing them (and I hope you’ll too!).
The Highway Residence
I had a good time at this convention. I believe the timeliness of the {hardware} focus for AI was the most important attraction. I absolutely intend to do a deep dive on most of the corporations I met with. I got here away with a brand new and improved perspective for the way the sector of AI is advancing.
Ready for my flight house 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 disillusioned with what I take with me when visiting the singular place on Earth the place a lot of AI originates.
I might extremely suggest this occasion to anybody within the AI house, or needing to enter it. Getting a {hardware} perspective is vital now that {hardware} is cool once more! I consider I’ll have so as to add this occasion to my record of annual conferences for certain!
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