AI Update: Chips Are Getting Better and Scarcer

Welcome to the latest edition of FindBiometrics’ AI update. Here’s the latest big news on the shifting landscape of AI and identity technology:

Nvidia has launched a new tool for 3D image generation called “FlexiCubes”. It’s a ‘mesh generation’ solution, referring to the use of machine learning to construct 3D objects out of vertices, edges, points, and faces. FlexiCubes introduces the use of ‘flexible‘ parameters allowing for the integration of certain physics. This could enhance the realism in AI-generated images such as deepfakes.

The White House has announced an “AI Cyber Challenge”, inviting white hat hackers to leverage AI technologies to look for vulnerabilities in the nation’s IT infrastructure. Overseen by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Challenge will begin in earnest with a qualifying event in the spring of 2024, followed by ‘semifinals’ at the DEF CON hacking conference that August. DARPA will offer $18.5 million in prize money, and $1 million loans for small businesses that want to participate. Registration opens this fall.

Nvidia has unveiled its next processor, the ‘Grace Hopper Superchip’, an upgraded version of the GH200. It will have the same GPU as the H100, but with triple the memory capacity, making it up to 50 percent faster than the memory technology in the current-generation GH200. NVIDIA hasn’t put a price tag on it, but the popular H100 chip currently goes for about $40,000. The Superchip will become available in Q2 of 2024.

China’s tech giants are racing to snap up these chips, thanks in part to fears that the White House will further tighten export restrictions to encompass them. About $5 billion in GPU orders have been made, with Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent alone account for $1 billion in sales of Nvidia’s A800 processors this year. Sale of the faster A100 chips to China was restricted by the US government last year.

The United Kingdom Home Office is looking for six new experts to join its Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group, including individuals with AI and biometrics expertise — particularly with respect to ethical and regulatory considerations. All appointments will be for a three-year term, with the application deadline set for September 11, 2023. The request for candidates comes immediately following the announcement of the pending resignation of the country’s Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner.

Law enforcement authorities in China are cracking down on scams involving the use of deepfake technology. According to a report from China Daily (which is owned by the propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party), agencies including the Bureau of Network Security Protection have been assessing the vulnerabilities of various facial authentication systems operated by business, and asking those organizations to make upgrades as needed. They have also arrested over 500 suspects in cases of “AI face alteration”.

The chatbot’s take:

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August 11, 2023 – by Alex Perala