Opinion

AI’s ‘Functional’ Imperative

Featured, Opinion

By David Benjamin

“I remember telling myself: This isn’t going to last. I thought there was too much money floating around. These people may be earnest researchers, but whether they know it or not, they are still in a race to put out products, generate revenue and be first.”

— David Brooks, New York Times

Coincident with the turmoil that ended with Sam Altman’s reinstatement at the top of OpenAI and the drastic restructuring of the artificial intelligence laboratory’s board of directors, I happened to watch Frank Capra’s classic film, Meet John Doe.

Although released in 1941, the movie reflected the trauma of the Great Depression.

Lufthansa, an Upset Passenger, and a Bungled Information System

Featured, Opinion

Lufthansa and the German police are entangled in a botched information and self-reporting system, highlighting the vulnerabilities of a system meant to protect travelers in the aviation industry.

Tenstorrent-Rapidus Handshake, and What It Means

Featured, Opinion

What’s at stake?
Can one plus one – a startup partnering with another startup – take the world’s AI market by storm? That’s the “public image” two semiconductor startups seek to generate in Japan. At stake is a lot of Japanese government money.

Rapidus, a new Japanese startup foundry with big ambitions to design and manufacture “the world’s most advanced logic semiconductors,” Thursday announced an agreement with Tenstorrent Inc., a Canadian AI startup based in Toronto.

Autonomous Altruism

Featured, Opinion

AV developers are driven by goals that aren’t exactly the same as what the rest of society want. It’s time to acknowledge that difference.

AV Technology Is Not s Bowl of Cherries.

AV Technology Is Not a Bowl of Cherries

Featured, Opinion

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake:
Cruise’s playbook has helped shatter public confidence in automated vehicles. We now wonder if there is a new playbook in the works – consisting of concrete actions – for every AV company so that they won’t make the same mistakes

Two days after the California DMV ordered it to suspend its San Francisco driverless taxi service, Cruise “proactively” bit the bullet and “paused” robotaxi operation nationally.

Now Cruise is going to “take time to examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust.”

Here’s hoping the company will put its commitment where its mouth is.

Arm Up, RISC-V Down, But The Real Loser Is x86

Featured, Opinion

By Peter Clarke

What’s at stake:
Although application-specific processing and neural-network architectures are becoming more significant with each passing year, established microprocessor architectures and their support of specific software bases remain significant. They have fostered and dominate big consumer markets such as personal computing and mobile phones. The conventional wisdom is that, just as Arm – once agile and without legacy baggage – could come to rival the original processor pioneer architecture x86, the open-source RISC-V is going to do the same to the now less agile and more encumbered Arm architecture.

Last week was one of contrasting fortunes for the microprocessor architectures Arm and RISC-V.

Pet Robots vs Robotaxis

Featured, Opinion

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake:
Never underestimate pet robots. Sure, they’re toys and they’re adorable . But they foreshadow a future in which people need to communicate, interact and establish relationships with machines.

I’ve been back “home” in Japan for less than a week, during which I’ve been repeatedly reminded — again — of this country’s eternal fascination with robots, and with how people here tend to fall in love with anything cute.

I refer, of course, to Nicobo, a cuddly robot developed by Panasonic and released last May.

Goodbye, Intel

Featured, Opinion

By Peter Clarke

What’s at stake:
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is betting on the future of Intel with some bold moves. He has now been in place long enough – since February 2021 – for shareholders, customers and analysts to start to judge Gelsinger by what he does rather than by what he says, which often sound too optimistic.

Intel Corp.’s announcement that it plans to operate the Programmable Solutions Group (PSG) as a separate business from January 1, 2024 with a view to an IPO within three years, has revealed an asset-sale trend.

Dig Deeper Podcast: Chip Makers Map a Sustainable Future

Featured, Opinion

The energy-intensive semiconductor industry aims to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050. It must first transform aspirational goals into climate action.

Welcome Back, Intel

Featured, Opinion

By Peter Clarke

Last month. a couple of things happened that provide support to the idea that Intel could catch up with rivals Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics in chip manufacturing technology.

One was the opening of Intel’s Fab34 in Leixlip, Ireland, and the start of mass-production of 4nm chips there. The other was the speculation that TSMC is delaying the ramping of its 2nm manufacturing process in Taiwan until 2026.

Why does it matter: Because much of US foreign and commercial policy depends on the country having a semiconductor technology leader and minimizing dependence on southeast Asia, which it apparently acknowledges as China’s sphere of influence.