The AI Chip Revolution with Andrew Feldman of Cerebras

Nathan Labenz sits down with Andrew Feldman, CEO and Co-Founder of Cerebras Systems, a company building a new class of computer systems for accelerating AI and changing the future of work. Cerebras Systems is the creator of the world’s largest chip, at 2.6 trillion transistors. In this episode, they discuss the founding story of Cerebras, the experience of creating the world’s largest chip, and the process that goes into chip design and manufacturing for an AI-focused chip.
This episode is the first part of our series focused on the people building at the forefront of hardware applications of AI.
LINKS:
Book: The Chip War by Chris Miller www.amazon.com/Chip-War-World...
PODCAST RECOMMENDATION:
The AI Breakdown: ‪@AIDailyBrief‬
As anyone in AI knows, the pace of progress of new releases is relentless. The AI Breakdown is a daily podcast (10-20min long) that helps us ensure we don't miss anything important by curating news and analysis.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Preview
(04:27) Andrew’s story of creating the world’s largest chip and Cerebras
(07:19) What is a chip?
(08:14) The diversity of chips and what they can accomplish
(09:47) What is it like to design a 2.5 trillion transistor chip?
(12:41) The founding story of Cerebras and building the team
(14:20) Recommendation: The AI Breakdown Podcast
(15:39) Sponsor: Omneky
(23:00) What was the hardest part about building the company?
(26:11) What happens after designing the chip’s blueprint?
(27:29) The tradeoffs needed in chipmaking
(34:08) The comparison between chips and neural networks
(38:31) The generalization vs specialization of a chip
(40:11) Sparse compute vs dense compute
(43:55) Ghost in the machine
(46:54) Supply chain challenges of the Cerebras chip
(54:59) The future for chips
(58:19) Building chip clusters
(58:57) The Cerebras business model
(01:00:41) Building a chip cluster vs using a Cerebras chip
(01:02:57) Giant chips on the edge
(01:05:32) What is the edge?
(01:08:04) Andrew’s favorite AI products
(01:10:08) Would Andrew get a Neuralink implant?
(01:14:16) Consciousness and chips
(01:17:50) AI hopes and fears
TWITTER:
@CogRev_Podcast
@andrewdfeldman (Andrew)
@labenz (Nathan)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off.
Music Credit: MusicLM
More show notes and reading material released in our Substack: cognitiverevolution.substack.com

[@total2992]

An amazing company with a fundamental difference from all those involved in the field of artificial intelligence. In my opinion, this is the company that can topple Nvidia.

[@cafemike111]

Great interview!

[@George-Aguilar]

Amazing interview. Want to learn so much more about the Hardware & Data Centers that will enable the most powerful future AI systems.

[@3ool0ne]

Yo. Nathan’s voice needs to be gated. There are crazy weird processed reverb trails coming off every word. Andrew’s is fine.

[@and1play5]

2024::
- Nvidia GH200
- Nvidia GB100