Sam Altman calls area knowledge facilities ridiculous as Musk and Bezos push orbital computing ambitions ahead

[ad_1]

Sam Altman describes present proposals for orbiting knowledge facilities as fully unrealistic for this decadeModern AI chips can not survive area radiation, making orbital knowledge facilities presently unfeasibleRadiation-hardened semiconductor nodes lag behind superior fabrication processes required for AI workloads Sam Altman has publicly dismissed proposals to position large-scale knowledge facilities in orbit, describing the thought as unrealistic beneath present technological and financial circumstances.

The OpenAI chief govt argued space-based computing infrastructure is not going to function at a significant scale inside this decade.

His feedback come because the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have spoken concerning the long-term potential of orbital amenities powered by plentiful photo voltaic vitality and free of terrestrial constraints.

It's possible you'll like {Hardware} not constructed for area Altman’s remarks straight problem that optimism and draw consideration to the sensible limitations going through such initiatives.

"I truthfully suppose the thought with the present panorama of placing knowledge facilities in area is ridiculous," mentioned Sam Altman at a press convention hosted by The Indian Specific.

"It's going to make sense sometime, however for those who simply do the very tough math of launch prices relative to the price of energy we will produce on Earth, to not point out how you will repair a damaged GPU in area, they usually nonetheless break so much, sadly, we're not there but."

Trendy AI accelerators and high-performance processors are manufactured utilizing superior fabrication nodes resembling 4nm-class course of applied sciences.

Signal as much as the TechRadar Professional e-newsletter to get all the highest information, opinion, options and steering your online business must succeed!

These cutting-edge chips aren't radiation-hardened and subsequently can not stand up to the tough circumstances of area.

Radiation-resistant semiconductor applied sciences do exist, though they depend on a lot older manufacturing nodes that lack the efficiency required for right now’s giant AI workloads.

Earlier than orbiting amenities can deal with significant computational demand, new fabrication approaches would want to mix superior efficiency with radiation tolerance.

It's possible you'll like Past processing {hardware}, orbital knowledge facilities would require cooling methods and dependable energy technology able to sustaining thousands and thousands of accelerators.

Launch suppliers resembling SpaceX and Blue Origin are growing reusable rockets and area infrastructure, but the supporting ecosystem for working huge computing amenities in orbit stays incomplete.

Terrestrial knowledge facilities already rely on advanced preparations involving energy grids, cooling methods, SSD arrays, HDD backups, and cloud storage integration, all of which might require adaptation for area environments.

Value stays a central barrier to orbital deployment. Launching 800kg into low Earth orbit can price a number of million {dollars} utilizing present business rockets.

A single Nvidia NVL72 GB200 rack-scale resolution weighs properly over a metric ton with out further cooling or connectivity methods.

Scaling such infrastructure into orbit would multiply launch necessities and related bills.

Even when launch costs decline for bigger payloads, the cumulative price of transporting and assembling full-scale amenities would stay excessive beneath present circumstances.

Altman has acknowledged that area will ultimately help sure industries, though he maintains that orbiting knowledge facilities don't seem viable at scale this decade.

Through Tom's {Hardware}

Comply with TechRadar on Google Information and add us as a most well-liked supply to get our knowledgeable information, opinions, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure that to click on the Comply with button!

And naturally you can too observe TechRadar on TikTok for information, opinions, unboxings in video type, and get common updates from us on WhatsApp too.