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Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Behind the plot to break Nvidia's grip on AI by targeting software


Big draw: Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang speaking at an industry event in California. Some big tech companies are trying to show developers how to migrate away from Nvidia’s dominance in AI. — Bloomberg

Exclusive: Behind the plot to break Nvidia's grip on AI by ...

Nvidia's grip on AI by targeting software.html

Alliance seeks to use alternative open source software 

SAN FRANCISCO: Nvidia earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial-intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from startups to Microsoft, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet .

Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than four million global developers rely on Nvidia’s Cuda software platform to build AI and other apps.

Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm, Google and Intel plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going after the chip giant’s secret weapon: the software that keeps developers tied to Nvidia chips.

They are part of an expanding group of financiers and companies hacking away at Nvidia’s dominance in AI.

“We’re actually showing developers how you migrate out from an Nvidia platform,” Vinesh Sukumar, Qualcomm’s head of AI and machine learning, said in an interview with Reuters.

Starting with a piece of technology developed by Intel called OneAPI, the UXL Foundation, a consortium of tech companies, plans to build a suite of software and tools that will be able to power multiple types of AI accelerator chips, executives involved with the group told Reuters.

The open-source project aims to make computer code run on any machine, regardless of what chip and hardware powers it.

“It’s about specifically – in the context of machine learning frameworks – how do we create an open ecosystem, and promote productivity and choice in hardware,” Google’s director and chief technologist of high-performance computing, Bill Magro, said in an interview.

Google is one of the founding members of UXL and helps determine the technical direction of the project, Magro said.

UXL’s technical steering committee is preparing to nail down technical specifications in the first half of this year. Engineers plan to refine the technical details to a “mature” state by the end of the year, executives said.

These executives stressed the need to build a solid foundation to include contributions from multiple companies that can also be deployed on any chip or hardware.

Beyond the initial companies involved, UXL will court cloud-computing companies such as Amazon.com and Microsoft’s Azure, as well as additional chipmakers.

Since its launch in September, UXL has already begun to receive technical contributions from third parties that include foundation members and outsiders keen on using the open-source technology, the executives involved said.

Intel’s OneAPI is already usable, and the second step is to create a standard programming model of computing designed for AI.

UXL plans to put its resources toward addressing the most pressing computing problems dominated by a few chipmakers, such as the latest AI apps and high-performance computing applications.

Those early plans feed into the organisation’s longer-term goal of winning over a critical mass of developers to its platform.

UXL eventually aims to support Nvidia hardware and code, in the long run.

When asked about the open source and venture-funded software efforts to break Nvidia’s AI dominance, Nvidia executive Ian Buck said in a statement: “The world is getting accelerated. New ideas in accelerated computing are coming from all across the ecosystem, and that will help advance AI and the scope of what accelerated computing can achieve.”

The UXL Foundation’s plans are one of many efforts to chip away at Nvidia’s hold on the software that powers AI. Venture financiers and corporate dollars have poured more than US$4bil into 93 separate efforts, according to custom data compiled by PitchBook at Reuters’ request.

The interest in unseating Nvidia through a potential weakness in software has ramped up in the last year, and startups aiming to poke holes in the company’s leadership gobbled up just over US$2bil in 2023 compared with US$580mil from a year ago, according to the data from PitchBook.

Success in the shadow of Nvidia’s group on AI data crunching is an achievement that few of the startups will be able to achieve.

Nvidia’s Cuda is a compelling piece of software on paper, as it is full-featured and is consistently growing both from Nvidia’s contributions and the developer community. — Reuters

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Sunday, March 24, 2024

What is ISIS-K, the group that allegedly carried out the Moscow concert hall attack?

Smoke rises above the burning Crocus City Hall concert hall near Moscow, Russia on Friday. (Photo: Reuters)

The New Arab looks into who ISIS-K are and why they might have carried out the attack in Moscow that killed over 100 people.

The perpetrators of the attack started a fire that completely destroyed the Crocus City Hall [Getty

A branch of the Islamic State group (IS), which once controlled vast swathes of Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the deadly terror attack at a Moscow concert hall which took place on Friday.

At least 133 people were killed and over 145 injured when as many as five gunmen, armed with automatic weapons, entered the Crocus City Hall and opened fire on concertgoers, who were there to see the popular Soviet-era rock band Picnic.

Hours after the attack, the Islamic State Khorasan Province, known as ISKP or ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of ISIS, claimed responsibility for the attack through the group’s Amaq news agency.

The New Arab looks into what ISIS-K are and why they are targeting Russia.

What is the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K)?

Khorasan is the historical name for the region between central and West Asia, including Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and parts of northeastern Iran.

ISIS-K emerged in eastern Afghanistan in 2015 during the Taliban insurgency against the US-led coalition and the emergence of ISIS in its “caliphate” form in Iraq and Syria.

The group formed from defectors of the Taliban, dissident Salafi-Jihadists suppressed during Taliban rule, and militants from Pakistan and Uzbekistan. It launched attacks not only on US forces and their allies in Afghanistan but also the Taliban and saw anyone who opposed its particular Salafi-jihadist worldview as a legitimate target.

This situation has persisted, with the Taliban—having taken control of Afghanistan after the US withdrawal in 2021—and ISIS-K remaining in conflict. But the Taliban has struggled to suppress the group, with Afghanistan becoming a safe haven for ISIS-K and its ideological reach and networks expanding. 

This has coincided with a general uptick in ISIS activity around the world, most notably in Iraq and Syria. 

Since its inception, ISIS-K has also launched several attacks outside Afghanistan, most recently the twin bombings in Kerman in Iran last January that killed just under 100 people.

Why is ISIS-K targeting Russia?

ISIS-K has opposed the Russian government for years but experts who follow the group's activities say that it only began to re-focused its attentions on Russia since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years, frequently criticising Putin in its propaganda,” said Colin Clarke of the Soufan Center, a Washington-based research group.

Michael Kugelman of the Washington, DC-based Wilson Centre said ISIS-K “sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims”.

More specifically, ISIS-K has used Putin’s brutal military intervention in Syria on behalf of the regime of Bashar al-Assad to justify its attacks on Russia. Though ISIS more often than not fought Syria’s moderate rebels rather than the Assad regime, ISIS-K has used Russia’s intervention in Syria as a recruitment tool.

Along with Russian intervention in Syria, the group also cites Russia’s destructive wars against Muslim-majority Chechnya as direct justifications for its hostility to Moscow.

Has ISIS-K attacked Russia before?

In 2022, as many as 10 people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted Russia’s embassy in Kabul, with ISIS-K claiming responsibility for the attack.

Earlier this month, Russia reported several incidents involving ISIS-K, with the FSB intelligence agency saying on 7 March it foiled an attack on a synagogue in Moscow.

The US said it had warned Russia of intelligence indicating an immediate threat posed by ISIS-K, with alleged plans for attacks on 'large gatherings' in Moscow. On Friday, a US official stated that Washington had intelligence confirming ISIS-K's claim of responsibility for the Crocus City Hall attack.

What has Russia’s reaction been?

Russia has said its security forces have arrested 11 suspects connected with the attack, while they are hunting for the rest. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in an address to the Russian people that Ukraine is involved in the attack.

Given Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine, Putin’s regime may want to exploit the attack to place responsibility for it on Kyiv, even if it acknowledges ISIS-K’s involvement. 

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said four of the attack suspects had been trying to reach Ukraine and had “contacts” in the country. This excessive focus on Ukraine could leave Russia susceptible to more attacks by ISIS-K, as it fails to address the reasons why the group is targeting it.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president who now is deputy head of the security council, said that if Kyiv’s involvement in the attack on the concert hall is proved, all those involved “must be tracked down and killed without mercy, including officials of the state that committed such outrage”.

Ukraine has denied any involvement in the attack.

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The Star
Anwar condemns Moscow attack
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/03/24/anwar-condemns-moscow-attack



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The terror attack in Moscow that has reportedly caused at least 133 deaths will further unify Russians, as Chinese experts ...




Xi extends condolences to Putin after deadly Moscow terror attack

More than 133 people have been killed and 145 injured in a terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall music venue in the city of Krasnogorsk in the Moscow Region as of press time on Saturday. This is the first large-scale terrorist attack targeting civilians within Russia since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and came within a week after Vladimir Putin won a reelection victory. Analysts said the terror attack will likely shock Russian people psychologically and put pressure on Kremlin to stablize the situation and calm the public.


Witness to history: Chinese in Russia recall narrowly escaping from Moscow concert massacre; community offers timely help and solace



Russian investigators announced on Thursday that they had evidence linking the gunmen responsible for the concert massacre to "Ukrainian nationalists." Experts believe that Russia is seeking to capitalize on the solidarity that has strengthened in the wake of the terrorist attack to accelerate progress on the battlefield, and increase leverage for future negotiations.

Friday, March 22, 2024

First human-to-human transmission of tick-borne disease

Bug alert: A doctor in his 20s contracted the infection from an elderly patient who died. The doctor’s condition has improved. — The Straits Times/ANN

The first human-to-human transmission of a viral infection linked to ticks was recorded in Japan, the country’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases said.

A doctor in his 20s contracted the infection – severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) – from a male patient in his 90s, reported The Yomiuri Shimbun.

The elderly patient was diagnosed with the disease in April 2023. Symptoms of SFTS include fever, low blood platelet count, and influenza-like symptoms or gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and diarrhoea, according to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) in Singapore.

When the patient died, the doctor removed his intravenous drip and soon developed a 38ºC fever and other symptoms. He was diagnosed with the disease nine days later.

Human-to-human transmission was confirmed after the genes of the viruses in the two men were found to be identical. The doctor’s condition has since improved.

The disease is most commonly transmitted from infected animals such as cattle and rodents to humans through a tick bite, according to the NCID website.

There is no evidence that suggests the main vector, the Asian long-horned tick, is established in tropical countries such as Singapore. —- The Straits Times/ANN

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Thursday, March 21, 2024

YTL AI Cloud to deploy advanced supercomputer

YTL said the YTL AI Supercomputer will be located in a 664ha data centre facility in the YTL Green Data Centre Campus in Johor.

KUALA LUMPUR: YTL Power International has announced the formation of YTL AI Cloud, a specialised provider of massive-scale graphic processing unit (GPU)-based accelerated computing.

YTL AI Cloud will deploy and manage one of the world’s most advanced supercomputers on Nvidia Grace Blackwell-powered DGX Cloud, an artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer for accelerating the development of generative AI.

In a statement yesterday, YTL said the YTL AI Supercomputer will be located in a 664-ha data centre facility in the YTL Green Data Centre Campus in Johor, powered by a renewable energy source from its on-site 500-megawatt solar power facility.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said YTL AI Cloud, the first for Malaysia, will accelerate Malaysia’s adoption of AI and spearhead the development of the country’s Sovereign Cloud.

“The collaboration with Nvidia is a testament to Malaysia’s attractiveness as a hub for digital investments,” he said.

Meanwhile, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the AI Cloud will create high-value, high-income jobs for Malaysians.

“This marks a significant step forward in our mission to become a leading AI and data centre hub in the region,” he said.

He said the initiative not only brings Malaysia closer to achieving its goals under the New Industrial Master Plan 2030, but also demonstrates Malaysia’s capability and readiness to play a significant role in the global technology landscape.

It is to be noted that YTL will be among the first companies to adopt Nvidia GB200 NVL72 – a multi-node, liquid-cooled, rack-scale system with fifth-generation NVLink.

The supercomputer will be interconnected by Nvidia Quantum InfiniBand networking platform.

The platform acts as a single GPU with 1.4 exaflops of AI performance and 30 terabytes of fast memory, and is designed for the most compute-intensive workloads.

The YTL AI Supercomputer will surpass more than 300 exaflops of AI compute, making it one of the fastest supercomputers in the world.

“There is no doubt that AI is a critical tool that will power the global digital economy,” said Digital Minister, Gobind Singh Deo.

He said having one of the most powerful Nvidia cloud computing infrastructures in Malaysia is a game changer and will spark innovation and development of solutions which are instrumental to the success of the Malaysia Digital Economy blueprint.

“Nvidia is working with YTL AI Cloud to bring a world-class accelerated computing platform to South-East Asia – helping drive scientific research, innovation and economic growth across the region,” founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia, Jensen Huang said.

The latest supercomputer marks one of the first deployments of the Nvidia GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip on DGX Cloud, supporting the growth of accelerated computing in the Asia-Pacific region.

Meanwhile, YTL Power International managing director, Datuk Seri Yeoh Seok Hong said the group is proud to be working with Nvidia and the Malaysian government to bring powerful AI cloud computing to Malaysia.

“We are excited to bring this supercomputing power to the Asia-Pacific region, which has been home to many of the fastest-growing cloud regions and many of the most innovative users of AI in the world,” he said. — Bernama

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