TikTok Parent Firm ByteDance Plans New AI Model Trained With Huawei Chips: Report
ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, is considering Huawei chips for its new AI model to reduce reliance on NVIDIA amid US trade restrictions.
New Delhi, September 30: TikTok parent firm ByteDance is reportedly considering a new artificial intelligence (AI) model powered by Huawei chips. The development comes at a time when ByteDance is exploring ways to enhance its AI capabilities, amid increasing global competition in the AI industry. As per reports, the company plans to use Huawei’s advanced semiconductor technology for training the AI model, diverging from chips provided by NVIDIA.
As per a report of CNBC TV18, TikTok's parent ByteDance plans to develop its AI model with chips sourced from Huawei Technologies. The decision is reportedly a response to trade restrictions in the US that are pushing the company to look for chip suppliers for other alternatives. According to multiple reports, ByteDance is said to have spent more than USD 2 billion on NVIDIA's H20 chips in 2024, but now the company wants to lessen its reliance. Reports also suggest that ByteDance is planning to create two new AI chips, which may include one for AI training and another for AI inference. These chips will reportedly be made using TSMC's advanced N4/N5 process technology. OpenAI ChatGPT Plus Subscription May Soon Cost Around USD 50 a Month; Check Details.
Training AI models is a complex process that needs a lot of data, which is why powerful chips like Nvidia's high-end graphics processing units are often used. Now, ByteDance is reportedly planning to use Huawei's Ascend 910B chip to train a large language AI model. Currently, ByteDance mainly uses the Ascend 910B for simpler tasks, where pre-trained AI models make predictions. US Presidential Election 2024: Netflix Subscribers Cancel Services After Co-Founder Reed Hastings Endorsed Kamala Harris, Elon Musk Reacts.
The limited availability of Huawei Ascend 910B chips has been a major challenge for ByteDance. However, the company reportedly ordered more than 1,00,000 chips this year, but it had only received around 30,000 chips by July 2024. ByteDance's latest AI technology powers its main large language model, which was launched in August 2023 and is now called the Doubao chatbot. The AI technology is also used in various applications, such as a text-to-video tool named Jimeng. Recently, the company released two new Doubao models focused on video to compete with OpenAI.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 30, 2024 05:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).