Opinion

A Lone Voice in Support of America’s Strict AI Rules

Featured, Opinion

China is ascendant. In everything. Short of a civil war, this reality is unstoppable.

So, why is America plunging ahead with plans to restrict Chinese access to advanced artificial intelligence technologies, processes and the semiconductor manufacturing equipment required to gain the associated benefits? Here’s why we agree that these actions are necessary and worthwhile, despite the flaws and the futility of achieving the totality of American objectives.

Russian Kosmos 2553: Scientific Satellite or Weapon of Mass Destruction?

Featured, Opinion, Uncategorized

By Steve Taranovich

What’s at stake:

Global powers are increasing their space-based capabilities over the next decade to secure their defense and economic interests. Creating a free-for-all environment presents unacceptable risks to global stability. Has Russia triggered the rush for unfettered space-based weapons systems?

Why did Russian Aerospace Forces launch the Kosmos 2553 satellite (to a highly unusual trajectory in a lonely orbit at 1,240 miles above the Earth) on February 5, 2022? Moscow tells the world they are testing their latest onboard instruments and systems. Given the lack of transparency about such programs, however, I am skeptical.

The United States Space Command is very interested in this Soviet satellite as it orbits the Earth every two hours in a “graveyard” orbit, a.k.a. the high-radiation “Van Allen belt,” a band where disposal or junk typically orbit, outside of common operational orbits.

Kosmos 2553 shares this particular orbit with 10 “dead” satellites that have floated within the belt for many years. The rarely used, high-radiation Van Allen belt circles planet Earth and satellites here eventually fall into the stratosphere and burn up. Why would Moscow put Kosmos 2553 in such an orbit around our planet?

What’s Cooking at OYR (and at my house)

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Mike Markowitz assumes the role of editor-in-chief at the Ojo-Yoshida Report with a mouthwatering introduction.

Prefix AI, Nvidia and TSMC will dominate a slow 2025

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By Peter Clarke

What’s at stake:

A new year and hope spring’s eternal. It should if you are working on AI-related technology. The rapid rise of different forms of AI – edge, hybrid, agentic and embodied or physical AI – means that Nvidia’s incumbency as semiconductor market leader is set to continue. For many others, the future is not looking so bright.

It would be all-too human to argue that the trend towards artificial intelligence that has been so strong over the last several years must be about to abate and allow some different innovation to be the forcing function for the technology sector in 2025.

The argument that exponential growth must end eventually is compelling. And it surely applies to the technology and to the semiconductor leader Nvidia.

And yet, while the annual doubling of revenue that Nvidia has shown will be hard to sustain, this human being thinks that AI will continue to be the driver of the semiconductor economy. Indeed, there is likely to be a renewed surge of interest in AI with the addition of prefixes such as edge, hybrid, agentic and embodied or physical.

Intel Needs an Active, Competent Board, not a ‘Savior’ CEO

Featured, Opinion

By Bolaji Ojo

Michele Johnston Holthaus can still get confirmed as Intel Corp.’s next CEO, vaulting to the top of the management team from her current title of interim co-CEO. But Holthaus would not be the perfect candidate – one presumably with a degree and background in engineering like the last CEO Patrick Gelsinger. She wouldn’t be at a loss in the position, either. Holthaus has the potentials to become a great leader at Intel.

Still, the substantive CEO question isn’t the priority for Intel now. What the public and the chipmaker’s various audiences want to have answers to are more pressing questions about its future. Questions such as: will Intel spin off its foundry unit or retain it as an inhouse operation; will it go ahead and spend billions of dollars on the new fabs promised by Gelsinger or will it seek to conserve funds; what’s the vision for Intel and; what’s the latest on its turnaround plan?

AI Past, Present, and Future (Part 3)

Featured, Opinion

By Clive (Max) Maxfield

What’s at stake:

AI is revolutionizing everything from creative endeavors to caregiving, relationships, labor markets, and even warfare. As we look toward an AI-driven future, the stakes lie in balancing its immense potential to enhance our lives with the ethical, societal, and existential risks it poses.

The 1984 American science fiction action film, The Terminator, featured Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cybernetic assassin from the future. The underlying plot is that an artificially intelligent system called Skynet becomes self-aware, determines that humans are a threat to its existence, and decides to eradicate humanity from the face of the Earth. Hold that thought…

In Part 1 of this mini-series on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), we predominantly pondered the days of AI in the past. In Part 2, we turned our attention to AI in the present. Now it’s time to cogitate and ruminate on the potential (both good and ill) for AI in the future.

Asking the Right Questions & ‘Reading’ People

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In “Backbone,” author David Schneer takes an unconventional path to make the case for the value of qualitative research.

What's The Long-Term Outlook for Automotive Chip Industry?

What’s the Long-Term Outlook for Auto Chip Industry?

Featured, Opinion, Partner Content

In the face of the seeming despondent industry dynamic, here’s why I contend there are good reasons to cheer the long-term outlook for the industry

AI Past, Present, and Future (Part 2)

Featured, Opinion

By Clive (Max) Maxfield

What’s at stake:

As artificial intelligence advances at a breakneck pace, we are standing at a crossroad where the line between science fiction and reality blurs. How will we navigate the ethical, economic, and personal impacts of artificial intelligence innovations? To understand where we’re heading, we first need to explore where we’ve come from and consider the present-day breakthroughs that are defining the world of our future.

In Part 1 of this mini-series on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), we predominantly pondered the days of AI Past. We commenced in the 1700s by considering some of the automata — self-operating machines or control mechanisms designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations or respond to predetermined instructions — that were created at that time.

Where Are We Headed with China?

Featured, Opinion

By Bolaji Ojo

Death by a thousand cuts can quickly become a reality for certain segments of the electronics industry if swift action is not taken to address the question asked in the headline of this opinion piece.

Western governments, led by the US, have amassed a growing armada of rules, regulations, laws, and sanctions aimed at limiting China’s access to IP, innovations and technologies used in the development and production of advanced technology products. In addition, laws tightening or proscribing engagement with Chinese companies have been introduced in recent years.

Ask any industry executives, though, and it would be difficult getting an answer on the precise objectives of these actions, the role their companies are expected to play, and whether they see an end in sight to the tightening rules or a future where commerce can be conducted without severe national restrictions and penalties for violating drastic rules. The industry has accepted that geopolitics have become a staple of business, but they nevertheless puzzle about how long this will be and whether their views matter anymore.