2023-05-19 10:16:54 ET
U.S. technology giant %MetaPlatforms () has unveiled new custom-made microchips to power its %ArtificialIntelligence (A.I.) and video-processing platforms.
The parent company of social media sites Facebook and WhatsApp disclosed its new microchips during a virtual event focused on it’s A.I. work and investments.
One of the new computer chips, called the “Meta Scalable Video Processor,” or MSVP, is used to process and transmit video to users while cutting down on energy consumption.
Meta said that its goal is to develop a microchip that can process and deliver four billion videos a day to consumers.
The other processor unveiled by Meta is the first in the company’s “Meta Training and Inference Accelerator,” or MTIA, family of microchips intended to help with various A.I. tasks.
The new MTIA chip specifically handles “inference,” which is when an already trained A.I. model makes a prediction or executes a specific action such as writing an email or drawing a picture.
Meta said it plans to use the new A.I. inference chips to power some of its recommendation algorithms used to show content and ads in people’s news feeds on Facebook and other social media platforms.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) will produce the new microchips designed by Meta Platforms. Taiwan Semiconductor is the world’s largest microchip and semiconductor fabricator, producing about 60% of the global supply.
Meta Platforms is also developing microchips that it plans to use to train future A.I. models. The company has already created PyTorch software, which has become a popular tool among third-party developers of A.I. apps.
The new microchips can also help Meta with the development of its metaverse virtual reality realm, the company said.
Lastly, Meta said it has completed the final buildout of its new supercomputer dubbed “Research SuperCluster,” or RSC, which can be used to train generative A.I. platforms and large language models similar to %ChatGPT .
Meta has pivoted aggressively to focus more on artificial intelligence following the release and popularity of various chatbots and A.I. models such as ChatGPT and its successor GPT-4.