The UK government has taken a monumental step towards fortifying its standing in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) by pledging an investment of $273 million towards the creation of its most potent supercomputer to date, Isambard-AI. This high-caliber machine is expected to be ranked among the world’s top AI-operated supercomputers upon activation.
Isambard-AI will be an epitome of cutting-edge technology, thanks to its arsenal of thousands of superior NVIDIA chips, allowing it to execute over 200 quadrillion calculations per second. The mega project, set to commence operations by summer 2024, will be hosted by the University of Bristol as per a report by Engadget.
NVIDIA, in its announcement, highlighted that the colossal computer is being constructed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and will utilize 5448 NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips. This formidable hardware enables Isambard-AI to achieve more than 21 exaflops of AI performance, or over 21 quintillion floating-point operations per second, particularly useful in applications like training large language models.
According to the University of Bristol, Isambard-AI will outpace the fastest supercomputer in the UK today by tenfold. It will be situated in the National Composites Centre at Bristol, housed within a self-sufficient, self-cooled data center.
The announcement came amid the AI Safety Summit held in the UK, where leaders from multiple nations including the United States converged to deliberate on the future and potential risks of AI. Ultimately, Isambard-AI will serve to interconnect with other giant computers within the UK, significantly enhancing performance. Upon its initiation, according to Simon McIntosh-Smith from the University of Bristol, Isambard-AI will be “one of the most powerful open science AI systems anywhere”.
This investment is a testament to the UK’s unwavering commitment to becoming a forerunner in the global AI race, and Isambard-AI is envisioned to be a cornerstone for open science and AI advancements in the region. The initiative also aligns with broader global efforts to harness AI’s potential safely and efficiently, reflecting a collaborative spirit among nations to navigate the uncharted waters of AI technology.
