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- Elon Musk Launches Colossus, “the Most Powerful AI Training System in the World⚡!”
Elon Musk Launches Colossus, “the Most Powerful AI Training System in the World⚡!”
Also: MiniMax takes on OpenAI’s Sora for the text-to-video generator crown, while OpenAI co-founder Sutskever's AI startup raises $1 billion 💸.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nah, that’s just Colossus, the world’s largest NVIDIA GPU supercomputer!
Hello, and welcome yet again to the Neural Frontier 😏!
And yes, you read that right. Musk just launched Colossus, and it’s a pretty sensational feat, to say the least.
But that’s not even the half of it. In the text-to-video world, a new competitor has stepped into the fray; MiniMax is taking a shot straight at the 👑.
What’s more, word on the street is that Sutskever’s AI startup just raised about $1 billion, taking its valuation somewhere north of $5 billion.
Ready or not, let’s go⚡!
In a rush? Here's your quick byte:
🤖 Elon Musk launches Colossus!
⚡ MiniMax takes on OpenAI’s Sora for the text-to-video generator crown.
💸 OpenAI co-founder Sutskever's AI startup raises $1 billion!
🎭 AI Reimagines: The Resident Evil 4 movie you never got!
Source: Getty Images
Elon Musk's latest AI venture, xAI, has launched Colossus, the world's largest NVIDIA GPU supercomputer, completed in just 122 days. Built to train xAI’s large language model, Grok, Colossus aims to challenge OpenAI's GPT-4 with plans to scale even further.
Here’s the breakdown:
🔍 Colossus Supercomputer Performance: Located in Tennessee, Colossus houses 100,000 NVIDIA Hopper H100 GPUs, making it the most powerful AI training system globally. This massive computing power is dedicated to training Grok, which Musk plans to release in its third iteration, Grok-3, by December, positioning it as a potential leader in AI models.
💡 Expansion Plans: Musk intends to double Colossus’s capacity by adding 50,000 NVIDIA H200 GPUs, which are expected to offer nearly twice the memory and 40% more bandwidth than their predecessors. This expansion will further solidify Colossus’ standing as a top AI training system.
⚙️ Strategic Moves: Despite fierce competition for NVIDIA's prized AI chips from tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, xAI has leveraged Tesla’s existing supply and secured a significant investment commitment of $3 billion to $4 billion for NVIDIA’s hardware, bolstered by a recent $6 billion Series B funding round with backing from venture capital heavyweights like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.
While Colossus brings economic activity back to Memphis, there are concerns about the strain on local resources, including a daily need for up to 1 million gallons of water and a consumption of 150 megawatts of power.
Source: MiniMax
MiniMax, the latest AI video generator from China, is impressing users with its ability to produce hyper-realistic videos, particularly in accurately replicating human hand movements—a challenge for many other tools.
Backed by Alibaba and Tencent, this unicorn startup is quickly gaining traction in the generative AI space.
Here’s the scoop:
🔍 What is MiniMax? MiniMax video-01 is the newest model from a lineup that includes generative speech, language, and music. Released quietly in early September, it rapidly gained popularity on social media in both China and the West. The AI tool can create 1280x720 resolution videos at 25 frames per second, and while currently limited to six-second clips, future updates aim to extend this to match the 10-second clips offered by industry leaders like Runway Gen-3.
💡 Capabilities and Features: Users can generate video clips with descriptions of cinematic camera movements, allowing for creative and visually engaging content. The tool has been likened to Luma Labs' Dream Machine but is still catching up to Runway Gen-3 in terms of overall capability and feature set. However, MiniMax excels in generating realistic human movements, a significant achievement that sets it apart from competitors.
📈 Performance and Future Plans: According to MiniMax founder Yan Junjie, the current model’s performance is already surpassing some competitors like Runway in internal evaluations. The company is not resting on its laurels; version-02 is already in the works, promising enhancements like image-to-video generation and longer initial clip durations.
Initial user tests show that MiniMax video-01 performs well, producing results on par with current market standards. However, it is not yet the groundbreaking leap forward that some promotional materials suggest. Still, with frequent updates and a strong development trajectory, MiniMax is an AI video generator to watch.
Source: Getty Images
Safe Superintelligence (SSI), co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has secured $1 billion in funding to develop safe AI systems that aim to surpass human capabilities.
With a focus on AI safety, the startup is building a highly trusted team of researchers in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, backed by prominent venture capital firms.
Here’s the lowdown:
🚀 Funding and Valuation: SSI, just three months old, has raised $1 billion and is valued at $5 billion. The funds will be used to acquire computing power and recruit top talent, reflecting investor confidence in Sutskever's vision despite a broader market cooling on foundational AI research investments.
👥 Founding Team: Co-founded by Ilya Sutskever, former Apple AI lead Daniel Gross, and ex-OpenAI researcher Daniel Levy, SSI is committed to advancing safe AI. Sutskever serves as chief scientist, Levy as principal scientist, and Gross oversees computing power and fundraising.
🔒 Focus on AI Safety: AI safety is a key concern amid fears of rogue AI acting against human interests. Sutskever's departure from OpenAI followed a controversial period involving governance issues, prompting his shift towards building SSI, focusing on safely scaling AI systems.
Key investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and DST Global. SSI is exploring partnerships with cloud and chip companies to support its computing needs, though no commitments have been finalized.
Source: u/WarPack23 Reddit
First off, yes, that’s Leon. Second, Resident Evil fans are gonna love this one!
What happens when you attempt to turn Resident Evil 4 into a movie? This showcase!
Timely, budget-aligned software delivery meeting your business goals
Quick start and timely project delivery
Industry-leading expertise covering your entire SDLC
ELEKS-owned responsibility for your project's success
⚡ The Neural Frontier’s weekly spotlight: 3 AI tools making a splash this week.
Source: ChatGPT Image Generator
Productivity buffs? Creative tinkerers? AI enthusiasts? All are welcome! Dive into our showcase of AI tools in the spotlight this week.
1. 🎥 Choppity: Choppity is a user-friendly video editing tool designed for everyone, not just pros. With Choppity's AI-driven features, users can quickly find specific moments in videos, edit them like text documents, and customize subtitles, all without any video editing experience.
2. 📝 Collato: Collato is an AI meeting assistant that transforms your meetings into comprehensive documents, helping you save time and focus on what truly matters. With Collato, you can record and transcribe meetings, add context through voice memos or images, and instantly generate tailored documents using customizable templates.
3. 🧠 Remind AI: Remind AI is an open-source platform that helps you capture and use your digital activities as a personal memory bank. With advanced AI technology, Remind makes tracking and recalling your tasks, notes, and activities easy, enhancing your productivity by acting as your artificial memory.
Wrapping up…
A colossal launch from Musk, more competition in the text-to-video AI space, and billion-dollar money moves from Sutskever. What more could we have asked for?
It’s been a thriller of a week, and we can’t wait to do this again with you next week.
So, what do you say? Same time, same place?