Why cloud GPUs are the key to unlocking innovation in AI and ML across industries and organizations around the globe
We’ve always talked about the need to democratize access to cloud compute worldwide. Historically, the gains in technology – and cloud compute in particular – have been realized by only very specific companies in specific regions. It has long been a game where the largest, best-funded companies with the biggest budgets would get the biggest advantage. Cloud GPUs magnify this challenge. The digital divide that has existed is now becoming a vast chasm. To fully harness the power of AI and machine learning (ML), you need tens of thousands of GPUs on demand. It’s not just about accessing one expensive, hard-to-procure GPU to work at scale. Those that don’t have the resources (including staff, budget, and raw compute power) are left in the dust.
We’ve always talked about the need to democratize access to cloud computing worldwide. Historically, the gains in technology – and cloud compute in particular – have been realized by only very specific companies in specific regions. It has long been a game where the largest, best-funded companies with the biggest budgets would get the biggest advantage.
Cloud GPU magnify this challenge. The digital divide that has existed is now becoming a vast chasm. To fully harness the power of AI and machine learning (ML), you need tens of thousands of Cloud GPUs on demand. It’s not just about accessing one expensive, hard-to-procure GPU to work at scale. Those that don’t have the resources (including staff, budget, and raw compute power) are left in the dust.
This can lead to a reality where you will have very few elite companies with the compute capacity to win, dominate, and monopolize a digital future.
ChatGPT: Looking to the future
Nowhere can the innovation of AI and machine learning (ML) be seen more clearly than in ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a large language model that has been trained on massive amounts of data, allowing it to generate human-like text and hold conversational interactions. Recently, the craze of ChatGPT has taken the tech industry by storm, and it’s poised to revolutionize content creation.
According to Shirin Ghaffary at Vox, "ChatGPT is just the beginning of a tsunami of AI innovation that will affect every industry. Ghaffary says that Many believe it’s a once-in-a-lifetime technological breakthrough that could impact virtually every aspect of society and disrupt industries from medicine to law.”
AI is already impacting dozens of industries, many not even directly related to tech. Millions of people can – and already are – using generative AI to write books, create art, or develop code. Ghaffary states, "ChatGPT is setting records for how quickly it’s been adopted by users – it took the app only five days to reach 1 million users.” From writing cover letters to developing code, it’s clear that systems like ChatGPT are poised to evolve the nature of both creative and professional work – and this is just the beginning.
Making AI available to the masses
It’s no exaggeration to say that AI is going to change everything. While students may use it to write papers or creatives might use it to make art, AI will also change how we build, design, test, and manufacture products across all industries, from ideation to production to customer delivery and utilization.
But currently only the largest companies with a robust budget have access to the accelerated computing powering AI. According to David Gewirtz at ZDNET, "Since 2020, cloud computing has taken a tremendous leap forward, with many businesses fulfilling their ten year road maps in ten months – or, for some, even in ten weeks – because of the massive growth in demand for digital information and e-commerce.” How can we enable new digital disruptors in a marketplace where only the largest corporations can leverage their existing scale to build these groundbreaking ML models?
The answer lies in democratizing access to cloud GPUs for companies – both large and small – across the globe. Implementing AI technologies such as ChatGPT requires a significant amount of GPU power. In fact, according to Zhiye Liu at Tom's Hardware, ChatGPT will eventually need over 30,000 Nvidia GPUs to run successfully – a task that is impossible on-premises.
Examples like this make it clear why cloud computing is the way forward. The cloud offers better scaling and allows companies to access vast amounts of computing power on demand, making it easier to implement AI technologies and stay ahead of the competition.
How do you truly democratize cloud compute for the masses? It has to start with democratizing access to cloud GPUs at an affordable and global scale to enable developers, innovators, and businesses of all sizes to compete in a new digital future – and that’s what we’re doing at Vultr.
Learn more about our approach to GPUs.
