Facebook's Meta Says New Supercomputer Will Be World's Fastest
2022-01-31
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1Facebook's parent Meta says it has created a powerful supercomputer that it expects to be the world's fastest when it is completed later this year.
2The company recently announced the computer will be used to create better artificial intelligence (AI) models and to improve operations that process huge amounts of data.
3Supercomputers are made up of hundreds or thousands of powerful machines.
4They work together to perform complex operations that are not possible with normal computing systems.
5Meta's supercomputer is currently operating.
6The company calls it the AI Research SuperCluster, or RSC.
7In a statement, the company said RSC "will help Meta's AI researchers build better AI models that can learn from trillions of examples."
8The company did not provide information on where the computer is kept or how much money is being spent to build it.
9An AI system can be trained to recognize different kinds of content and perform actions examining huge amounts of data.
10Such systems require very powerful computers.
11Meta said its supercomputer will be able to process written information, images and video that is in hundreds of different languages.
12Meta said the computing system can process images and video up to 20 times faster than current systems.
13The company is expected to use the system for its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp services.
14The company said it believes RSC is currently one of the world's five fastest supercomputers.
15It said RSC would become the fastest when it is fully operating.
16In addition, Meta said it hopes RSC will help in the development of completely new AI systems.
17One example is a planned tool that would permit real-time voice translations to large groups of people interacting in business or social situations.
18Such an operation fits with Meta's stated goal of developing technologies to be used in a future "metaverse."
19Metaverse is a term used to describe a non-physical world in which individuals interact through different kinds of digital technology.
20Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook message: "The experiences we're building for the metaverse require enormous compute power (quintillions of operations [a] second!)..."
21Meta uses a combination of human moderators and AI to identify and remove, what it considers, harmful content and misinformation.
22Some critics say the company is not doing enough to block bad content.
23It has also faced government scrutiny over its privacy and business methods in the United States and Europe.
24In a statement, the company said its supercomputer will be helpful in "critical use cases like identifying harmful content."
25Diego Naranjo is the head of policy for European Digital Rights.
26It is a group of non-governmental organizations seeking to restrict the power of large technology companies.
27He told the French press agency AFP that he recognizes Facebook has made some efforts to protect users' privacy and limit harmful content.
28But he questioned what the company might do with such a powerful new tool.
29"Nothing good can come from all that computer power in the hands of such a tech superpower," Naranjo said.
30Meta said its supercomputer will use "real-world examples" from its own systems during the process to train its AI.
31"They are going to, for the first time, put their customer data on their AI research computer," said Tuomas Sandholm.
32He is a computer science professor and co-director of the AI center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
33Sandholm said it marked "a really big change" for Facebook to give its AI researchers and computing systems access to all that data.
34Meta said the data used to train AI models will go through a "privacy review process" to ensure that it is not linked to individual users.
35It added that the data will also be encrypted before entering the training process.
36I'm Bryan Lynn.
1Facebook's parent Meta says it has created a powerful supercomputer that it expects to be the world's fastest when it is completed later this year. 2The company recently announced the computer will be used to create better artificial intelligence (AI) models and to improve operations that process huge amounts of data. 3Supercomputers are made up of hundreds or thousands of powerful machines. They work together to perform complex operations that are not possible with normal computing systems. 4Meta's supercomputer is currently operating. The company calls it the AI Research SuperCluster, or RSC. In a statement, the company said RSC "will help Meta's AI researchers build better AI models that can learn from trillions of examples." 5The company did not provide information on where the computer is kept or how much money is being spent to build it. 6An AI system can be trained to recognize different kinds of content and perform actions examining huge amounts of data. Such systems require very powerful computers. 7Meta said its supercomputer will be able to process written information, images and video that is in hundreds of different languages. Meta said the computing system can process images and video up to 20 times faster than current systems. The company is expected to use the system for its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp services. 8The company said it believes RSC is currently one of the world's five fastest supercomputers. It said RSC would become the fastest when it is fully operating. 9In addition, Meta said it hopes RSC will help in the development of completely new AI systems. One example is a planned tool that would permit real-time voice translations to large groups of people interacting in business or social situations. 10Such an operation fits with Meta's stated goal of developing technologies to be used in a future "metaverse." Metaverse is a term used to describe a non-physical world in which individuals interact through different kinds of digital technology. 11Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook message: "The experiences we're building for the metaverse require enormous compute power (quintillions of operations [a] second!)..." 12Meta uses a combination of human moderators and AI to identify and remove, what it considers, harmful content and misinformation. Some critics say the company is not doing enough to block bad content. It has also faced government scrutiny over its privacy and business methods in the United States and Europe. 13In a statement, the company said its supercomputer will be helpful in "critical use cases like identifying harmful content." 14Diego Naranjo is the head of policy for European Digital Rights. It is a group of non-governmental organizations seeking to restrict the power of large technology companies. He told the French press agency AFP that he recognizes Facebook has made some efforts to protect users' privacy and limit harmful content. 15But he questioned what the company might do with such a powerful new tool. "Nothing good can come from all that computer power in the hands of such a tech superpower," Naranjo said. 16Meta said its supercomputer will use "real-world examples" from its own systems during the process to train its AI. 17"They are going to, for the first time, put their customer data on their AI research computer," said Tuomas Sandholm. He is a computer science professor and co-director of the AI center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Sandholm said it marked "a really big change" for Facebook to give its AI researchers and computing systems access to all that data. 18Meta said the data used to train AI models will go through a "privacy review process" to ensure that it is not linked to individual users. It added that the data will also be encrypted before entering the training process. 19I'm Bryan Lynn. 20Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Facebook. 21We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. 22_________________________________________________ 23Words in This Story 24artificial intelligence - n. an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence 25translation - n. the changing of written or spoken words from one language into another 26enormous - adj. very large 27moderator - n. someone who makes sure that a formal discussion happens without problems and follows the rules 28scrutiny - n. careful examination in a critical way 29customer - n. someone who buys goods or services from a business 30access - n. the right or chance to use of look at something 31encrypt - v. to change (information) from one form to another especially to hide its meaning