OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seeks as much as Ksh quintillion for new AI chip project: Report

Good morning. The tragic incident involving Kelvin Kiptum is disheartening. With immense potential, Kiptum, aged 24, lost his life in a road accident along with his coach. I guess the debate over who is the greatest between Kiptum and Kipchoge will never be settled. Our heartfelt condolences go out to Kiptum's family and friends during this difficult time.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seeks as much as Ksh quintillion for new AI chip project: Report

According to reports from the WSJ this week, Sam Altman's company, OpenAI, is in dire need of semiconductors to fuel its AI models, prompting Altman to seek funding of up to $7 trillion (over Ksh1 quintillion) to bolster global production capacity.

Yes, we’re talking quintillion—a herculean ambition given that just $527 billion (Ksh58 trillion) worth of chips were sold globally last year. OpenAI has struggled to secure sufficient supply from chip designer Nvidia, which sells much of the microprocessors fueling the ongoing AI frenzy.

Seeking assistance,

Altman aims to establish OpenAI’s semiconductor supplier, yet he requires support...

The entrepreneur has endeavored to persuade Silicon Valley VCs, government-affiliated investors in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and SoftBank to fund the venture. He’s also engaged with chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to establish global production facilities.

According to WaPo, he’s collaborated with US lawmakers to determine optimal locations for chip factories. Microprocessor availability is also a key concern for Uncle Sam.

Zoom out: Microsoft and Alphabet are developing their own chips, while Intel and Advanced Micro Devices vie with Nvidia for AI dominance.

Tour de Headlines:

MGIE by Apple

Apple has developed a new Multimodal Large Language Model (MLLM) called MGIE that can process both images and text. The notable feature of MGIE is its ability to edit images based on natural language prompts, allowing users to give instructions similar to those given to a human image editor. 

MGIE translates plain language prompts into technical instructions using its MLLM capabilities. It leverages an end-to-end training scheme to create a representation of the desired end result, referred to as visual imagination, and uses this to edit each pixel accordingly. This precision enables fast and efficient editing. 

MGIE is an open-source model available on GitHub, developed by Apple in collaboration with the University of California.

Google Maps update

Google Maps on Android has introduced a new feature that was previously exclusive to the iOS version of the app. Users can now view the weather and air quality overlay while using Google Maps. 

The weather widget appears as a small rectangular box in the bottom left corner of the screen, displaying the temperature, weather conditions, and air quality index (AQI) for the area being viewed. Tapping on the widget provides more detailed information, including the current temperature, weather conditions, daily highs and lows, hourly forecasts, and the option to view the air quality map layer. 

The feature is expected to be widely available soon after updating to the latest version of the Google Maps app on Android.

Gemini Pro in Bard

Google's Bard AI chatbot has introduced image creation capabilities using its Imagen 2 AI model, competing with OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus with DALL-E 3. Users can prompt Bard to generate images by providing descriptions, and it returns visuals in a matter of seconds. Google addresses copyright concerns and embeds watermarks in AI-generated images. 

In addition to image creation, Google has introduced ImageFX, an experimental image generation tool, and Gemini Pro, which now supports over 40 languages for improved language processing.