AISN #30: Investments in Compute and Military AI

Welcome to the AI Safety Newsletter by the Center for AI Safety. We discuss developments in AI and AI safety. No technical background required.

Compute Investments Continue To Grow

Pausing AI development has been proposed as a policy for ensuring safety. For example, an open letter last year from the Future of Life Institute called for a six-month pause on training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.

But one interesting fact about frontier AI development is that it comes with natural pauses that can last many months or years. After releasing a frontier model, it takes time for AI developers to construct new compute clusters with larger numbers of more advanced computer chips. The supply of compute is currently unable to keep up with demand, meaning some AI developers cannot buy enough chips for their needs.

This explains why OpenAI was reportedly limited by GPUs last year. [...]

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Outline:

(00:06) Compute Investments Continue To Grow

(03:48) Developments in Military AI

(07:19) Japan and Singapore Support AI Safety

(08:57) Links

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First published:
January 24th, 2024

Source:
https://newsletter.safe.ai/p/aisn-30-investments-in-compute-and

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