AI’s Single Point of Failure | Rob Toews | TED

Important to note that the reason for the fall of Intel was nothing more than your typical quarter-to-quarter system that all American companies are held to. It’s both the reason Intel fell, as well as the reason it won’t come back. The investor community has a way buying companies, slashing and burning costs (especially the ones that make their products a standout), and then putting it up for sale while their massive cost-cutting measures still haven’t reared its ugly head in the market. The investor/investment culture here needs to better reflect long-term goals as in other countries like they do in East Asia. Wow! Full circle!

we live in a bizarre world right now. humans in the future will discuss this time period in their history classes. no matter in which direction today’s conflicts move.

We have a small company here in Norway that produces semiconductors. I tried to ask them if they are planning on expanding their facilities and start making more and better chips, but they only answered that they hope I understand that there's a lot that has to be a secret in this regard. Europe, not only one or two countries here, must start making highly advanced chips as well.

00:04 🌍 The world's most critical advanced technology, essential for AI, is predominantly manufactured in Taiwan by TSMC. 01:40 💥 A conflict between China and Taiwan could profoundly impact the global AI ecosystem due to Taiwan's pivotal role in chip fabrication. 03:16 🖥 Companies like Nvidia and AMD design chips but rely on foundries like TSMC for manufacturing, and only a few companies globally can produce leading-edge chips. 05:53 🛑 Geopolitical tensions have led to bans on high-end AI chip exports to China, pushing for US-based production to reduce dependency on Taiwan. 07:29 🛡 The "silicon shield" theory suggests China won't invade Taiwan due to its reliance on TSMC, but the uncertainty remains in a potential conflict's impact on chip production. 09:41 💡 Samsung and Intel could be alternative chip producers, but the immediate gap in capabilities if TSMC is offline is significant. 10:44 🌟 Existing AI chip stocks and alternative fabs globally offer limited fallback options, but losing TSMC's capability would disrupt cutting-edge AI progress signifi

Each time he says the word "A.I." replace it with "Supercomputing" and this will become both substantially more accurate and more profound.

Great analysis and information on this TED Talk. Let's hope things don't escalate: a war between China and the US over Taiwan would be devastating for all humanity.

Rob forgot to mention that Germany receives two new fabs as well: one from Intel and one from TSMC. The EU will become a strategic pillar in the future of chip production.

Rob, as a seasoned assembler coder from the 70s, we were well aware of this issue all along, but unfortunately, our concerns were often overlooked. Here's my best tip: Prioritize addressing the challenges within your country, as that is where the most dangerous risks may lie.

Let me just put it simply: for those of you who said TSMC can be easily and quickly replaceable, it's not that easy and you have not done your homework. Samsung and Intel know that, and they are the next smartest people in this field. So the only thing left is to protect Taiwan with greater vigor than we did with Ukraine, a country that doesn't even hold any world-choking technology. What Rob didn't mention was that aside from the dominant position in AI chips, TSMC holds 54% of the chip market in the world. With it gone, you can visualize an even worse global manufacturing shortage than the one we experienced during the pandemic. Never mind the AI machines, you can't even repair your computers, your cars, your TVs, your phones, and you can't buy new ones as they are stopped on the production lines.

Besides AI chip the majority of all other chips are made by TSMC too, eg. all Apple’s chips for every single Apple product. An attack on Taiwan would be devastating to the entire world, possibly starting WW3.

Challenging times might be closer than we think. The gains have largely been powered by the AI boom in tech – and that has led to an unstable situation

Maybe the end of AI is not such a bad thing.

11:13 Why would this be devastating for humanity? We've made it this far on subpar chips and without advanced AI.

Francisco: this is so very true. We had a steel manufacturing plant here in my home town. ET Pybus. It had a large shop now a farmers food market. This big plant had a couple hundred workers. All the farmers and many businesses had the equipment and manufacturing they needed here in town. In the 70's it was bought out by Wall Street types and immediately disappeared. We have had no manufacturing here in Central Washington since these geniuses ruined my town. We had a large Ernst hardware store that went out of business when Lowes and Home Depot moved in. Now we have 1/10th the number of hardware items we used to have. A home grown hardware store is in Bellingham that is like what we used to have. My community has lost it's ability to fend for itself in this complex world.

Oh my, intriguing

I’ve often wondered about TSMC and mainland China, especially with the US ban on high end chips. This video is very important

enlightening

Perhaps a blessing in disguise - the slowdown in AI development we quite possibly need.

This video is only 2 weeks old and I see TSMC is the 11th biggest company in the world today by market cap

Oh no the basilisk sent his first minion, with a peace request