Samsung Electronics has launched its AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) business.
New research and development organizations will be established under this business unit. This will pave the way for collaborations with international entities.
The Korea Economic Daily reported that Kye Hyun-Kyung, the head of Samsung's Device Solutions (DS) division has announced the establishment of "AGI Computing Labs" in the United States and South Korea. He made the announcement on social media.
AGI Computing Labs
System semiconductors veteran and former Google AI chip division leader, Dr. Dong-hyuk Woo will reportedly lead this effort. Woo will be tasked with developing specialized semiconductors for AGI.
With a decade of experience at Google, he was involved in the development of Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) and the Gemini Nano AI model. Kye revealed that the initial focus of the AGI Computing Lab will be on inference, service applications, and the development of chips for large language models (LLMs).
Samsung is reportedly reassessing various aspects of chip architecture to significantly reduce the power consumption required to run LLMs. The company's targets for enhancement include memory design, lightweight model optimization, high-speed interconnects, and advanced packaging.
Additionally, Samsung plans to introduce new chip designs from the AGI Computing Lab through rapid iterations. These designs aim to provide sufficient performance for continuously growing models while helping to save power consumption and costs.
AGI international collaborations
Samsung's AGI venture will likely be supported by international players. Collaboration with entities like Meta and Open AI is on the table.
Meta announced its intention to develop its own AGI in early 2024. Subsequently, in February 2024, Samsung Chairman Jae-yong Lee met with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to discuss AI semiconductor collaboration.
Open AI's CEO Sam Altman previously expressed interest in AI chip collaboration with South Korean enterprises. He voiced his interest during the "K-Startup & OpenAI Matching Day in the US" event held at the company's headquarters by the South Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS).
Altman said he is willing to collaborate with Samsung and SK Hynix. Open AI's strong desire to create AGI leaves the door open for further in-house manufacturing and external collaborations.
