Research Articles

IDTechEx's market research report, "AI Chips for Edge Applications 2024-2034: Artificial Intelligence at the Edge", projects that the global AI chips market for edge devices will grow to US$22 billion by 2034, with the consumer electronics industry vertical taking the largest chunk of this revenue figure, at just over 45% by this date.

Since the introduction of Artificial Intelligence to the data center, AI has been loath to leave it. With large tracts of floorspace dedicated to servers comprising leading-edge chips that can handle the computational demands for training the latest in AI models, as well as inference via end-user connections to the cloud, data centers are the ideal environment for facilitating much of what AI has to offer.

Running in the background to the more visible, very real wars occurring around the world at present, there is another, economic and industrial in nature. This is a trade war between two principals: the USA and China.

In a recently published article, AI and Security: Ensuring That Opportunities Outweigh the Threats, IDTechEx discussed the importance of ownership and culpability when it comes to deploying AI tools, especially in the context of creative works. This matter of accountability and the potential insidious use of artificial intelligence in the creation of intellectual property is a theme touched on in the first episode of the new Black Mirror season, "Joan Is Awful".

Anyone with access to social media platforms will likely have heard of ChatGPT by now. Created by OpenAI and released in November 2022, the generative AI tool had 100 million registered users as of three months after release, with it - the world's most advanced chatbot - being used to answer simple queries, write songs, and draft press releases, all with varying degrees of success.

While the current AI boom is only just getting started, an early winner is Nvidia, who - on Tuesday, May 30th - saw the company's market capitalization exceed US$1 trillion for the first time. For a chip designer with no fabrication capabilities of its own, this is a significant moment.

Artificial Intelligence has come a long way since the success of DeepMind over Go world champion Lee Sedol in 2016; the world is beginning to change according to the new possibilities afforded by AI. From the robust predictive abilities of OpenAI's ChatGPT - where the AI chatbot can be used for all sorts of purposes, from creating scripts (including malware) to writing academic essays - to AI image generators that are so good that they can win Sony world photography awards, the complexity and capabilities of AI algorithms are growing at a startlingly fast pace.

Modern technology is largely built upon the back of tiny electrical circuits connected together to form chips. These come in a variety of configurations, and can be found in all kinds of household appliances (from rice cookers to air conditioners), consumer electronics (laptops, smartphones, TVs), and products and services necessary to everyday life in an interconnected world (such as airplanes, trains, and cars).

Whatever the name - be that the humble 'chip', the slightly misleading 'microchip', the technically robust 'semiconductor integrated circuit', or the slightly less technically robust 'integrated circuit' - chips are everywhere; in laptops, mobile phones, TVs, automobiles, displays, and other electrical products a thousand times over.

As high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, and even consumers become increasingly data-hungry, hardware struggles to keep pace. In addition, the need for real-time assessments of moving data points - such as for the accurate velocity-mapping of other objects in autonomous systems and facial recognition for security systems - is crucial to an increasingly hands-free society.