Meta announced the AI Research SuperCluster, the company’s new supercomputer. According to a company blog post, “Developing the next generation of advanced AI will require powerful new computers capable of quintillions of operations per second.” Hence, Meta is developing its supercomputer, which it plans to complete later this year.
Meta believes the AI Research SuperCluster will be the fastest supercomputer in the world upon its completion. As of now, the in-development supercomputer performs tasks such as translating text to different languages and identifying harmful content.
Additionally, the AI Research SuperCluster will aid the company’s AI researchers in creating superior AI models and developing AR tools. According to a Meta blog post, “Ultimately, the work done with RSC will pave the way toward building technologies for the next major computing platform — the metaverse, where AI-driven applications and products will play an important role.”
Other AI Developments
Meta isn’t the only company working on improving its AI capabilities. Nvidia is updating its AI Enterprise platform to allow for the deployment of AI workloads over partner servers. Likewise, game Engine creator, Unity recently acquired Ziva Dynamics, a powerful tool for creating realistic virtual humans.
When complete, the AI Research SuperCluster’s InfiniBand network will apparently be the largest network of its kind to date, connecting 16,000 GPUs as endpoints. As of now, the caching and storage system can serve 16 Terabytes of training data; however, Meta plans to scale the system up to 1 exabyte.
“Designing and building something like RSC isn’t a matter of performance alone but performance at the largest scale possible, with the most advanced technology available today,” said Meta.
According to Meta, the AI Research SuperCluster is necessary to realize the full potential of AI advancements in vision, speech and language. The company has been working on the supercomputer since early 2020.
The company believes the new supercomputer will enhance experiences in its upcoming metaverse. Meta stated on its blog, “This research will not only help keep people safe on our services today, but also in the future, as we build for the metaverse. As RSC moves into its next phase, we plan for it to grow bigger and more powerful as we begin laying the groundwork for the metaverse.”
Jack Brassell is a freelance journalist and aspiring novelist. Jack is a self-proclaimed nerd with a lifelong passion for storytelling. As an author, Jack writes mostly horror and young adult fantasy. Also an avid gamer, she works as the lead news editor at Hardcore Droid. When she isn't writing or playing games, she can often be found binge-watching Parks & Rec or The Office, proudly considering herself to be a cross between Leslie Knope and Pam Beasley.
