When it comes to the neural networks that power today’s artificial intelligence, sometimes the bigger they are, the smarter they are too. Recent leaps in machine understanding of language, for example, have hinged on building some of the most enormous AI models ever and stuffing them with huge gobs of text. A new cluster of computer chips could now help these networks grow to almost unimaginable size—and show whether going ever larger may unlock further AI advances, not only in language understanding, but perhaps also in areas like robotics and computer vision.
A New Chip Cluster Will Make Massive AI Models Possible
Cerebras says its technology can run a neural network with 120 trillion connections—a hundred times what's achievable today.
The Cerebras chip is part of a Cambrian explosion in new chip designs specialized for AI.Photograph: Cerebras
Cerebras Systems, a startup that has already built the world’s largest computer chip, has now developed technology that lets a cluster of those chips run AI models that are more than a hundred times bigger than the most gargantuan ones around today.
Cerebras says it can now run a neural network with 120 trillion connections, mathematical simulations of the interplay between biological neurons and synapses. The largest AI models in existence today have about a trillion connections, and they cost many millions of dollars to build and train. But Cerebras says its hardware will run calculations in about a 50th of the time of existing hardware. Its chip cluster, along with power and cooling requirements, presumably still won’t come cheap, but Cerberas at least claims its tech will be substantially more efficient.
"We've notice a few times how U.S. regulators often simply refuse to acknowledge that the U.S. Broadband sector isheavily monopolized.
> Regional cable and phone monopolies are the number one reason US broadband is patchy, expensive, and slow with routinely terrible customer service.
> But when you see folks in both parties discuss US broadband, industry dysfunction is always framed in this extremely nebulous way (we must "fix the digital divide!").
The firm notes that the broadband industry added 890,000 subscribers last quarter. Cable companies added 840,000 of that total, while phone companies added just 50,000:
"The top cable companies added about 840,000 subscribers in 2Q 2021 – 60% of the net additions for the top cable companies in 2Q 2020.
The top wireline phone companies added about 50,000 total broadband subscribers in 2Q 2021 – compared to a net loss of about 140,000 subscribers in 2Q 2020."
Phone companies (Windstream, AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, Centurylink) have effectively given up on residential broadband across much of the country. In many areas that means not just refusing to upgrade aging DSL lines, but often refusing to repair them. That's effectively creating a bigger broadband monopoly than ever for entrenched cable giants (usually Charter (Spectrum) and Comcast), which now dominate roughly 70 percent of the fixed line broadband market. No competition means no incentive to expand, compete on price, or shore up terrible customer service.
People like to pretend that stuff like satellite broadband and wireless will come in and disrupt this busted paradigm, but that's simply not true. Satellite broadband ventures like Elon Musk's Starlink lack the capacity to truly break this logjam at any real scale. And while 5G is also bandied about as a miracle solution to the problem, US wireless isn't a real substitute for for traditional fiber, usually comes with bizarre restrictions and caveats, and is generally expensive (something that will likely get worse thanks to recent industry consolidation).
The way you fix US broadband dysfunction is by targeting the regional fixed-line monopolies enjoyed by AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Charter.
One way to do that is to drive most subsidies toward smaller private competitors. Another way to do that would be to embrace and support the growing tide of community broadband efforts growing up around the country, whether they be municipal broadband, cooperatives, public/private partnerships, or utility-based.
But because AT&T, Comcast and friends are so politically powerful, efforts to do that usually get largely stripped away from any new broadband bills, as we just witnessed with the Biden broadband plan (in fact, community broadband support was the very first casualty).
Often these compromises, at the direct behest of monopoly lobbyists, are then framed as "bipartisan compromise."
But because the proposals aren't tackling the real reasons for US broadband dysfunction (regional monopolization and the state and federal corruption that protects it), nothing truly changes.
Top Providers Added 8,000,000 Subscribers Over the Past Two Years
Durham, NH — August 18, 2021 — Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that the largest cable and wireline phone providers in the U.S. – representing about 96% of the market – acquired about 890,000 net additional broadband Internet subscribers in 2Q 2021, compared to a pro forma gain of about 1,260,000 subscribers in 2Q 2020. . .
losses
“Net broadband additions in the second quarter of 2021 were the most in any second quarter in the past decade, except for 2Q 2020,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “Top broadband providers added 8,000,000 subscribers over the past two years, including about 4,330,000 net adds over the past year, and about 3,670,000 net adds over the prior year.”
Broadband Providers
Subscribers at end of 2Q 2021
Net Adds in 2Q 2021
Cable Companies
Comcast
31,388,000
354,000
Charter
29,634,000
400,000
Cox*
5,485,000
50,000
Altice**
4,401,300
200
Mediacom
1,468,000
14,000
Cable One**
1,017,000
14,000
WOW (WideOpenWest)
826,300
3,400
Atlantic Broadband
517,851
6,847
Total Top Cable
74,737,451
842,447
Wireline Phone Companies
AT&T
15,481,000
46,000
Verizon
7,263,000
70,000
CenturyLink/Lumen
4,666,000
(62,000)
Frontier^
2,798,000
(22,000)
Windstream
1,131,800
9,500
TDS
513,600
11,900
Cincinnati Bell
437,800
200
Consolidated^^
393,480
(4,522)
Total Top Telco
32,684,680
49,078
Total Top Broadband
107,422,131
891,525
Sources: The Companies and Leichtman Research Group, Inc.
