Microsoft is developing an in-house artificial intelligence (AI) chip, code-named ‘Athena’, which will power the technology behind AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, as reported in an exclusive by The Information.
The report reveals that the chip is currently being tested by a small group of Microsoft and OpenAI employees and has been in development since 2019.
These new chips will be used for training large-language models and supporting inference, both of which are critical for generative AI like ChatGPT to process vast amounts of data, recognise patterns and create new outputs to mimic human conversation.
The report indicates that Microsoft hopes the new chip will outperform existing AI chips it purchases from vendors, resulting in cost and time savings on its AI initiatives and its costly reliance on Nvidia chips.
This means that Microsoft will have greater control over the technology and be able to fine-tune it to meet its specific needs, leading to better performance and efficiency that will benefit both the company and its customers.
Exclusive from @anissagardizy8 & @waynema: Microsoft is developing its own AI chip, code-named Athena, which could help it control the costs of powering large-language models. https://t.co/mWOQYoLt6q
— The Information (@theinformation) April 18, 2023
Accelerated by ChatGPT
The rollout of the Athena chip is being accelerated by Microsoft following the success of ChatGPT, of which the company is an early backer.
Earlier this year, Microsoft launched its own AI-powered search engine, Bing AI, leveraging its partnership ChatGPT's parent company OpenAI.
Subsequently, the new Open-AI-powered Bing has spread its tentacles into most Microsoft products including the Office suite and the Azure cloud services to name a few.
Significant step forward
It remains to be seen how well the Athena chip performs compared to other chips currently available in the market, including those currently being provided by Nvidia.
This is in line with other big tech houses like Amazon and Google, which are also making their in-house chips for AI.
Nonetheless, Microsoft's development of the Athena chip is a significant step forward in the field of AI and reinforces the company's commitment to advancing technology in a highly competitive environment.