China supercomputer achieves global first with ‘brain-scale’ AI model
- Research team says latest Sunway machine is on a par with the US Frontier, named as the world’s most powerful just weeks earlier
- Its speed has made it possible to train an artificial intelligence program with 174 trillion parameters, rivalling the synapses in the human brain
The achievement puts the Newest Generation Sunway supercomputer on a par with Frontier, the latest machine built by the US Department of Energy, which earlier this month was named the world’s most powerful.
The Chinese team used the Sunway machine to train the AI model – called bagualu which means “alchemist’s pot” – with 174 trillion parameters, rivalling the number of synapses in the brain for the first time.
Potential uses include autonomous vehicles and facial recognition, as well as natural language processing, computer vision, life sciences and chemistry.
The results were presented at a virtual meeting of Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming 2022, an international conference hosted by the US-based Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in April.
A member of the research team confirmed the presentation’s authenticity in June, but asked not to be named because of the issue’s sensitivity.