OSAKA, Jan 23 (News On Japan) –
A big-scale AI knowledge heart has begun working on the location of a former manufacturing facility in Sakai, Osaka, elevating expectations that synthetic intelligence will grow to be much more embedded in on a regular basis life whereas additionally highlighting the rising battle for dominance in AI infrastructure and its potential influence on Japan’s economic system.
The location was as soon as a plant that produced televisions, lengthy thought to be one in all Japan’s flagship industries, however has now been reworked into KDDI’s next-generation knowledge heart outfitted for superior AI processing.
Rows of server racks fill the power, with Atsushi Sakurai, head of KDDI’s Service Platform Planning Office, explaining that the servers put in there are devoted to AI computation. Sakurai stated that by way of processing energy, a single rack can deal with computing capability hundreds of instances larger than a typical residence PC.
At the middle are Nvidia’s newest GPUs, high-performance picture processing semiconductors extensively used for growing AI fashions and working the programs that generate responses when customers submit inquiries. Sakurai stated GPU servers play a key position each in constructing AI foundations and in dealing with real-time AI processing.
However, he additionally pointed to challenges concerned in working AI knowledge facilities at scale, notably the warmth generated when massive numbers of servers are packed right into a confined house. The facility should take away large quantities of warmth, and cooling the servers requires substantial electrical energy.
Heat launched throughout the cooling course of will be seen on the rooftop, the place a few of it’s emitted as water vapor. KDDI stated the middle consumes energy equal to round 12,000 households when working at full capability, however it has nonetheless decreased electrical energy utilization by roughly 60% in contrast with earlier approaches, whereas additionally counting on renewable energy-based electrical energy to curb rising energy demand.
KDDI plans to make use of the power to help drug growth and manufacturing operations, in addition to to assist advance the event of domestically produced AI.
KDDI President Hiromichi Matsuda stated AI brokers are anticipated to more and more grow to be a part of company labor forces, reinforcing the idea that AI will reshape how companies function.
With a former tv manufacturing facility now repurposed into an AI knowledge heart, the transition from one main business to a different is being carefully watched as a take a look at of whether or not Japan’s subsequent development driver may also help elevate the broader economic system.
Source: TBS

