The controller of TikTok , ByteDance plans to develop a model of artificial intelligence (AI ) trained mainly with chips Also Chinese Huawei Technologies said three sources familiar with the matter.
ByteDance is seeking local suppliers of chips used in artificial intelligence applications and has accelerated the development of its own microprocessors since the United States began in 2022 to restrict exports of advanced electronic components such as those produced by market leader Nvidia.
ByteDance’s next step in the AI race is to use Huawei’s Ascend 910B chip to train a broad language AI model, the sources said. A fourth source also said ByteDance is planning a new AI model, but could not say whether the company will use Huawei chips.
ByteDance already uses the Ascend 910B primarily for less compute-intensive inference tasks that involve pre-trained AI models making predictions, the sources said.
Training AI models is much more demanding and requires large amounts of data, requiring the use of very high-performance chips, such as Nvidia microprocessors.
The new model’s capacity and complexity, measured by its computing parameters, will be less powerful than ByteDance’s current Doubao AI model, one of the sources said.
“The entire premise here is wrong. No new models are being developed,” said ByteDance spokesman Michael Hughes. Huawei did not comment on the matter.
Restricted supply
ByteDance has ordered more than 100,000 Ascend 910B chips this year but has received fewer than 30,000 as of July, a pace too slow to meet the company’s needs, one of the sources said.
Tight supply and limited computing power compared to Nvidia chips available in China have prevented ByteDance from setting a timeline for the new model, two of the sources said.
ByteDance’s current AI technology is used in its flagship large language model, launched in August 2023 and renamed the Doubao chatbot, and in many other applications, including text-to-video tool Jimeng. The company launched two video-focused Doubao models this month to compete with OpenAI.
The use of these apps has increased greatly since the beginning of this year, with ByteDance’s chatbot becoming one of the most popular in China, with more than 10 million monthly active users.
The increased emphasis on AI has made ByteDance one of the biggest buyers of Huawei’s AI chips, the sources said.
The company is also the biggest buyer of Nvidia’s H20 AI chip, which the U.S. chipmaker adapted for the Chinese market in response to restrictions imposed by Washington, two of the sources said.
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This content was originally published on ByteDance must use Huawei chips to create its own AI model on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
