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Huawei cloud computing executive plays down the need for advanced chips in AI development

  • Moving computing power from terminal devices such as smartphones to the cloud will ‘reduce power consumption and chip dependence’

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In this Oct. 11, 2020, file photo, a woman browses her smartphone as a woman walks by the Huawei retail shop promoting its 5G network in Beijing. Photo: AP
Coco Fengin Beijing
A Huawei Technologies executive said that developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology does not solely depend on access to advanced semiconductors, downplaying the impact of US sanctions on the Chinese tech giant.

Zhang Ping’an, chief executive of Huawei Cloud Computing Technologies, said that the company is seeking to reduce its reliance on semiconductors by shifting some computation from chips to the cloud.

“Our computing power is limited … We can’t rely solely on having AI chips with the most advanced process nodes to [build] AI infrastructure. We need to abandon the mindset that we can’t lead [in AI] without [the best chips]”, he said Thursday at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.

Zhang said Huawei has been “releasing” computing power from terminal devices, such as smartphones and computers, to the cloud, which “will significantly reduce power consumption and chip dependence”.

That transformation requires the help of optical fibre and wireless networks to coordinate between the cloud and device. Photo: Shutterstock Images
That transformation requires the help of optical fibre and wireless networks to coordinate between the cloud and device. Photo: Shutterstock Images

“We can’t use terminal devices to handle all computation, because [computation on] the terminal is bound to be constrained by the supply of chips, energy consumption and size [of the device],” Zhang said.

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