This Week in Tech (Audio) TWiT 1062: The Architects of AI - Can Small Models Outrun the Data Center Boom?
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Dec 15, 2025 Iain Thompson, a veteran UK tech journalist, joins Jason Hiner, an AI-focused editor, and Owen Thomas, managing editor of the San Francisco Business Times. They explore whether we’re in an AI gold rush or heading for a crash. Discussion covers the potential benefits of smaller AI models versus massive data centers, the ethical implications of AI in healthcare, and the geopolitical race between the US and China. They also touch on quirky AI holiday uses and the ramifications of recent social media policies.
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AI As The Defining Tech Story
- Time Magazine named “The Architects of AI” because AI was the dominant tech story shaping 2025.
- The cover grouped founders and researchers to reflect influence rather than honor individual virtue.
Small Models Eat Inference Workloads
- Small, task-specific models are proving cheaper and faster for many real-world workloads.
- Inference workloads, not frontier training, will drive much of near-term AI infrastructure demand.
Choose Purpose-Built Models First
- Focus AI deployments on purpose-built, smaller models for specific tasks to cut cost and latency.
- Run inference on older hardware generations when acceptable to avoid expensive frontier chips.
