It is reported that Amazon is developing a custom AI chip dedicated to Alexa

byAndres Urena

Amazon is an audio assistant function installed in the "Echo" series of speech recognition speakersAlexaIt is reported that we are starting to design our own artificial intelligence (AI) chip with the aim of improving the quality and shortening response time.

Amazon is reportedly following Apple and Google by designing custom AI chips for Alexa - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/12/17004734/amazon-custom-alexa-echo-ai-chips-smart-speaker

Amazon reportedly working on a custom chip to make Alexa faster
https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/02/12/amazon-reportedly-working-custom-chip-make-alexa-faster/

In order to make full use of AI on smart devices, custom designed chips, AI algorithms, custom designed servers etc are required. In fact, Apple's iPhone 8 / 8Plus / X installed in "A11 Bionic"Chips and Google's"TPU"There are multiple companies that develop / introduce custom AI chips, such as. Meanwhile, Amazon is also reporting that it is advancing the design of custom AI chip to improve the function of Echo, a speech recognition speaker using AI. This sounds like an unpleasant story for chip makers such as NVIDIA and Intel, but since Amazon has insufficient "chip manufacturing experience in China" like other manufacturers, Amazon will make its own chip by dedicated chip The possibility is considered low.

If Amazon develops its own AI chip, which is trying to maintain competitiveness in the smart home hardware market and consumer AI product areas, speech recognition will be improved in "Alexa-equipped Echo series" which is currently being expanded The response time is shortened and it is expected that more data processing can be performed on the device before communicating with the cloud.

byPiotr Cichosz

Amazon is not the only one working on the original development of chips. In April 2017, Apple announced that it will not renew license agreement with semiconductor manufacturer "Imagination Technologies" that we have been offering GPU as supplier for many years. This makes AppleDeveloped GPU independentlyIn fact, it is reported that Apple is developing chips that are excellent for power management and graphic processingOwasaThere also exists. In addition, A11 Bionic installed in iPhone X is equipped with dedicated neural network hardware called "neural engine", so that on-device processing of machine learning algorithm can be executed with Face ID, ARKit, etc. It is getting.

Other than that, our own AI hardware "TPU" has been developed over the past few years. TPU is an open source software library for machine learningTensorFlowCustom ASIC adapted to,I have defeated the Go championIt became famous by doingAlphaGoIt is also used for.

Clearly that Google had created secretly the "TPU" dedicated to explosive machine learning from several years ago - GIGAZINE


Also, GoogleClipsYaPixel 2We have also adopted a proprietary chip, and it is reported that the image processor for the next Pixel terminal is currently being designed.

Speaking of Amazon, we are fighting against competing products by exclusion of Google's service that provides "Google Home", which is the biggest rival of the Echo series in the smart speaker market, from its own products, but this In addition to the movement, competing with rival terminals in terms of product quality, "There is an advantage in the development of custom AI chips," The Verge wrote in foreign media.

Google and Amazon battles are ongoing, YouTube temporarily blocks access from Fire TV - GIGAZINE