Elon Musk claims he is training “the world’s most powerful AI by every metric”

On Monday, Elon Musk announced the beginning of coaching for what he calls “the world’s strongest AI coaching cluster” at xAI’s new supercomputer facility in Memphis, Tennessee. The billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of a number of tech corporations took to X (previously Twitter) to share that the so-called “Memphis Supercluster” started operations at roughly 4:20 am native time that day.

Musk’s xAI crew, in collaboration with X and Nvidia, launched the supercomputer cluster that includes 100,000 liquid-cooled H100 GPUs on a single RDMA fabric. This setup, according to Musk, offers xAI “a big benefit in coaching the world’s strongest AI by each metric by December this yr.”

Given points with xAI’s Grok chatbot all year long, skeptics could be justified in questioning whether or not these claims will match actuality, particularly given Musk’s tendency for grandiose, off-the-cuff remarks on the social media platform he runs.

Energy points

In keeping with a report by News Channel 3 WREG Memphis, the startup of the large AI coaching facility marks a milestone for town. WREG studies that xAI’s funding represents the most important capital funding by a brand new firm in Memphis’s historical past. Nonetheless, the mission has raised questions amongst native residents and officers about its impression on the realm’s energy grid and infrastructure.

WREG studies that Doug McGowen, president of Memphis Mild, Fuel and Water (MLGW), beforehand acknowledged that xAI might devour as much as 150 megawatts of energy at peak instances. This substantial energy requirement has prompted discussions with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) relating to the mission’s electrical energy calls for and connection to the ability system.

The TVA instructed the native information station, “TVA doesn’t have a contract in place with xAI. We’re working with xAI and our companions at MLGW on the main points of the proposal and electrical energy demand wants.”

The native information outlet confirms that MLGW has acknowledged that xAI moved into an present constructing with already present utility companies, however the full extent of the corporate’s energy utilization and its potential results on native utilities stay unclear. To handle neighborhood issues, WREG studies that MLGW plans to host public boards within the coming days to offer extra details about the mission and its implications for town.

For now, Tom’s {Hardware} studies that Musk is side-stepping power issues by putting in a fleet of 14 VoltaGrid pure fuel turbines that present supplementary energy to the Memphis laptop cluster whereas his firm works out an settlement with the native energy utility.

As coaching on the Memphis Supercluster will get underway, all eyes are on xAI and Musk’s bold objective of growing the world’s strongest AI by the top of the yr (by which metric, we’re unsure), given the aggressive panorama in AI in the mean time between OpenAI/Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Anthropic, and Google. If such an AI mannequin emerges from xAI, we’ll be prepared to jot down about it.

This text was up to date on July 24, 2024 at 1:11 pm to say Musk putting in pure fuel turbines onsite in Memphis.