New Chip Offers Artificial Intelligence On A USB Stick (pcmag.com)

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New Chip Offers Artificial Intelligence On A USB Stick (pcmag.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday May 1, 2016 @05:30AM from the It's-my-chip-on-a-box dept.

An anonymous reader writes: "Pretty much any device with a USB port will be able to use advanced neural networks," reports PC Magazine, announcing the new Fathom Neural Compute Stick from chip-maker (and Google supplier) Movidius. "Once it's plugged into a Linux-powered device, it will enable that device to perform neural network functions like language comprehension, image recognition, and pattern detection," and without even using an external power supply.

Device manufacturers could now move AI-level processing from the cloud down to end users, PC Magazine reports, with one New York computer science professor saying the technology means that now "every robot, big and small, can now have state-of-the-art vision capabilities."
The article argues that this standalone, ultra-low power neural network could start the creation of a whole new category of next-generation consumer technologies.

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Prototype as far as I can see by Mostly+a+lurker · 2016-05-01 05:36 · Score: 2

This is all very interesting. However, there is no indication of when the sticks will become generally available. Their website indicates that they intend to create 1000 sticks shortly for use by selected customers. It is difficult to know how real this is, actually.
1. Re:Prototype as far as I can see by ShanghaiBill · 2016-05-01 06:42 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  This is all very interesting. However, there is no indication of when the sticks will become generally available.
  There also seems to be very little actual information about it. How much memory does it have? How many FLOPS? The product sheet says it uses 16 bit floats, which are generally good enough for NNs. But can it do FP32 and FP64 at all? The power consumption is ~1W, so I doubt if it can do much with that. The USB interface would be a major bottleneck, as you fed information in, and pulled results out. A GPU on a PCIe bus would be way faster at that ... and nearly all computers already have a GPU. I think I will continue to run my NNs on a Tesla K80.
2. Re:Prototype as far as I can see by samkass · 2016-05-01 07:02 · Score: 1
  
  This is all very interesting. However, there is no indication of when the sticks will become generally available. Their website indicates that they intend to create 1000 sticks shortly for use by selected customers. It is difficult to know how real this is, actually.
  Wouldn't be surprised if this is a "please buy us out!" advertisement-product. I could see Apple buying them and integrating their chip into the next A-series processor to do client-side Siri among other things.
  
  --
  E pluribus unum
3. Re:Prototype as far as I can see by caferace · 2016-05-01 07:14 · Score: 1
  
  I suspect (yes, I'm guessing) that this may be somewhat less expensive than a Tesla K80.
4. Re:Prototype as far as I can see by ceoyoyo · 2016-05-01 07:39 · Score: 2
  
  It's just a mobile gpu chip with a USB interface.
5. Re:Prototype as far as I can see by ShanghaiBill · 2016-05-01 08:02 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I suspect (yes, I'm guessing) that this may be somewhat less expensive than a Tesla K80.
  Sure, but it is more expensive than the GPU already included in your computer, which has a marginal cost of $0 since you already have it. So why should you buy something that is far slower and less capable than something that is effectively free?
  Also, you don't need to buy a Tesla K80. You can rent them by the minute from AWS.
6. Re:Prototype as far as I can see by GiganticLyingMouth · 2016-05-02 08:41 · Score: 1
  
  It has FP32, but no FP64. And most of the hardware filters, e.g. for convolutions are FP16 only. And yes, GPUs are faster (I've written code for GPUs and the Myraid2), but the Myraid2 does pretty well from the perspective of processing power to power consumption ratio
7. Re:Prototype as far as I can see by instinct71 · 2016-05-02 14:34 · Score: 1
  
  The datasheet on their website claims 1TOps/s within 0.5W! Any idea how that is being achieved/reported ?
Only for Linux? by johnsmithperson123 · 2016-05-01 05:37 · Score: 2, Funny

Well, first time I've seen that in a long time. Sounds like this Xkcd (https://xkcd.com/644/) might have something to do with it.
Bullshit by geek · 2016-05-01 05:40 · Score: 5, Insightful

We should first create AI before we start selling it on fucking USB sticks.
1. Re:Bullshit by Applehu+Akbar · 2016-05-01 06:16 · Score: 1
  
  "We should first create AI before we start selling it on fucking USB sticks."
  It's a neural network on a stick. It's up to you too try to make it usable as an AI.
2. Re:Bullshit by The+Other+White+Meat · 2016-05-01 06:19 · Score: 1
  
  This is precisely the type of HARDWARE that AI SOFTWARE needs to reach maximum performance. They are making this technology more accessible, which means more developers have the tools they need to start working in the AI field. How is this a bad thing?
  
  --
  
  --- Generation X: The first generation to have SIG lines inferior to their parents... ---
3. Re:Bullshit by __aaclcg7560 · 2016-05-01 06:21 · Score: 1
  
  Just another IT guy who's hoping that AI isn't really here. Sorry, your fear is justified: AI will take your job away soon, if it hasn't already.
  I've been hearing that argument for years. If a robot does replaces my IT job, I'm going to become the guy who repairs robots. Most people don't have a situational awareness that their job might go away someday and prepare for the possibility that they might have to do something else for a living.
4. Re:Bullshit by mschwanke97402 · 2016-05-01 06:28 · Score: 2
  
  I agree. I'm tired of AI this and AI that. At best we're getting to expert systems that are tied to speech and sight recognition. When one of these "AI" thingies can come up with an original idea and implement new behavior as a result, we might be getting there.
5. Re:Bullshit by Midnight+Thunder · 2016-05-01 06:42 · Score: 1
  
  Don't worry someone will come from the future and destroy them, to prevent a war that hasn't yet taken place.
  
  --
  Jumpstart the tartan drive.
6. Re:Bullshit by ShanghaiBill · 2016-05-01 06:49 · Score: 1
  
  We should first create AI before we start selling it on fucking USB sticks.
  We have created AI. What we haven't done (yet) is create human level general purpose AI. But you don't need GP-AI to do things like object recognition, basic natural language processing, machine learning, etc. All of that is still artificial intelligence.
7. Re:Bullshit by __aaclcg7560 · 2016-05-01 07:01 · Score: 1
  
  Except that "robot repairers" - if not robot themselves - will be no more than 1/10 the jobs lost.
  Correct. If I recognized that I'm being replaced by a robot and make the preparations to become a robot repairer, I'm going to be the person who gets the job. Meanwhile, the 90% who got laid off will wonder what happen, blame someone else for their problems and demand that the government fix it for them.
  
  [...] you think you can keep your job as a sysadmin [...]
  Change my current job, let the robots have it.
  
  Enjoy capitalism.
  With every career change, I make more and more money.
8. Re:Bullshit by HiThere · 2016-05-01 07:05 · Score: 1
  
  You should read the Go masters commentary on the recent match. These "AI" thingies can come up with original ideas and implement them. And their original ideas can be better than those of any human expert. (They aren't always, of course.)
  What all current AIs I've heard of are weak on is layered hierarchies of goals.
  
  --
  
  I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
9. Re:Bullshit by __aaclcg7560 · 2016-05-01 07:11 · Score: 1
  
  Get real, if an AI Robot can do you job then an AI Robot can repair the faulty robots too.
  Who will repair the repair robots?
10. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2016-05-01 07:20 · Score: 1
  
  With every career change, I make more and more money.
  Oh, sure. Looking at your photo in your website, I think that robots definitely won't be able to physically "replace" you. Do you also have advice for people who don't eat a whole grocery store every week?
11. Re:Bullshit by 110010001000 · 2016-05-01 07:34 · Score: 1
  
  Object recognition is not AI. Neither is language processing. Christ.
12. Re:Bullshit by __aaclcg7560 · 2016-05-01 07:36 · Score: 1
  
  Do you also have advice for people who don't eat a whole grocery store every week?
  What makes you think I eat a whole grocery store? I actually eat less than most skinny people since I'm on a low carb diet (150 grams/1,500 calories per day).
13. Re:Bullshit by 110010001000 · 2016-05-01 07:36 · Score: 2
  
  I can replace most MBAs with a dirty sock. That doesn't mean we have AI.
14. Re: Bullshit by __aaclcg7560 · 2016-05-01 08:02 · Score: 2
  
  Who treats doctors when they get sick?
  Their mothers — and robots don't have mothers.
15. Re: Bullshit by WarJolt · 2016-05-01 08:17 · Score: 2
  
  You can train a machine to classify cat photos. I'm not sure if I'd call that intelligence.
  Scientists use the words machine learning. This device enables ML. At this time ML is by far the most useful aspect related to AI, but it's misleading to say this device enables AI. Additionally, mimicking human intelligence doesn't alway involve learned behavior.
  You might disagree with my terminology, but machine leaning enables better AI. Machine learning isn't AI. There are plenty of machines that have been trained that do completely unintelligent things.
16. Re: Bullshit by HiThere · 2016-05-01 13:26 · Score: 1
  
  Well, if you're talking about this particular device...I've no idea what it would be useful for, or why they picked a USB stick form-factor. If you're comparing Google's Go machine to something that classifies cat pictures, I don't think you understand the problem...or what the problem that was being solved is. Or if you're being dismissive of Go (i.e., "I don't like Go, therefore playing it isn't intelligent."), then perhaps you don't understand what was being done or why.
  I'm trying to read your comment as being more insightful, and failing. If you're feeling threatened, this is a valid feeling, but denial isn't a useful response. OTOH, there's probably several years before programmers jobs are threatened. I would no longer say several decades.
  
  --
  
  I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
17. Re:Bullshit by dcollins117 · 2016-05-01 17:33 · Score: 2
  
  f I recognized that I'm being replaced by a robot and make the preparations to become a robot repairer, I'm going to be the person who gets the job.
  And I'll be the guy who breaks them. Job security for us both!
18. Re:Bullshit by angel'o'sphere · 2016-05-02 07:33 · Score: 1
  
  Perhaps you should go back to school, as I told you already several times: both are AI
  It is not you who decides what AI is. It is the people actually working in AI
  It took decades of research to figure how a computer can recognize objects, that was once a hard AI problem.
  Language and image processing/recognition is done by a subset of aI called "cognitive systems".
  Sorry binary number, you know absolutely nothing about AI.
  
  --
  Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
19. Re:Bullshit by mschwanke97402 · 2016-05-02 08:54 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry, I would disagree that the Go playing computer is coming up with any original ideas. It is a very complex expert system. It might even remember tactics used in the game against it and "learn". It is all still the result of pre-programmed algorithms. One could examine the inputs, and knowing the programming, predict the computer's behavior. When the Go playing computer decides to take the day off or engage in some other behavior that was never contemplated by its programming we can talk.
DOA if the API isn't well documented by Anonymous Coward · 2016-05-01 05:46 · Score: 1

I can see a niche market for such a thing(aerial robotics, marketing research, statistics data collection for some other purpose such as at a kiosk) but the question is: is it less effort to integrate than rolling your own with other frameworks? Unless there is a severe power budget or weight limitation of the application(IE aerial drones), the notion of "plug and play" is dependent on how much the device does, and how easy it makes it to add the capabilities it doesn't.
Wasted potential... by __aaclcg7560 · 2016-05-01 06:10 · Score: 2

This is AI on a USB stick is smart enough to know that it was go into the drawer with all the non-AI USB sticks that I don't use anymore?
1. Re: Wasted potential... by __aaclcg7560 · 2016-05-01 06:39 · Score: 1
  
  I'm sure the AI would speak better English than you. Idiot.
  An idiot is someone who isn't open to correction. I'm always open to correction. Since you're not offering correction but an insult, I must presume you're the idiot.
No external power supply? by wonkey_monkey · 2016-05-01 06:17 · Score: 1

and without even using an external power supply.
What are the 5 volts provided by the USB bus if not "external power"?

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Re: Linux Foundation job interview question by The+Other+White+Meat · 2016-05-01 06:20 · Score: 1

That question is absurd. A straight linux nerd? Please.

--

--- Generation X: The first generation to have SIG lines inferior to their parents... ---
Re:Why? by wonkey_monkey · 2016-05-01 06:27 · Score: 1

It's faster.

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Re:Can anyone explain to me... by wonkey_monkey · 2016-05-01 06:28 · Score: 1

Probably not.
What's really inexplicable is that you actually took time out to write about how little you care about it. Why would anyone do that?

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Re: Linux Foundation job interview question by __aaclcg7560 · 2016-05-01 06:34 · Score: 1

Cut a small hole into a coconut and name it Jane.
Maybe by ArchieBunker · 2016-05-01 06:38 · Score: 2

This USB stick will do a better job of editing Slashdot than the humans,

--
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Artificial Intelligence by JustAnotherOldGuy · 2016-05-01 06:48 · Score: 1

"New Chip Offers Artificial Intelligence..."
They keep using that phrase, but I do not think that phrase means what they think that phrase means.

--
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I have to create an account to view the API? by Viol8 · 2016-05-01 07:27 · Score: 3, Insightful

Fuck off. If you want me to have even a passing interest in this i want to see how easy it will be to use and port applications BEFORE I give you my details.
Do you want Skynet? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · 2016-05-01 07:27 · Score: 1

Because that's how you get Skynet. - Archer
Re:Why? by ceoyoyo · 2016-05-01 07:43 · Score: 1

It's a mobile GPU in a USB stick. Kinda handy if you've got some device with a USB port but no GPU.
No, I couldn't think of any examples either.
Re:Why? by Gavagai80 · 2016-05-01 08:26 · Score: 1

It's for Linux. Most of don't have working GPU drivers.

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This space intentionally left blank
Re:Why? by ceoyoyo · 2016-05-01 08:39 · Score: 1

Sure. All the deep learning libraries that support GPU computation on Linux beg to differ with you. TensorFlow doesn't run on Windows at all.
Re:Why? by HornWumpus · 2016-05-01 09:54 · Score: 1

So it's one of these: http://www.newegg.com/USB-Disp... plus bullshit?

--
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Re:Why? by ceoyoyo · 2016-05-01 14:15 · Score: 1

Kind of like that, except without the video out.
perform neural network functions like language... by matbury · 2016-05-01 14:22 · Score: 1

perform neural network functions like language comprehension
They let on it was bullshit with this one. Ain't no AI that can do language comprehension (natural language processing doesn't actually comprehend language) let alone one on a USB stick. If it can correctly answer questions like:
"The city councilmen refused the demonstrators a permit because they feared/advocated violence. Who feared/advocated violence?"
...then I'll believe they're getting closer to AI that can comprehend language.
The new Turbo by Ferocitus · 2016-05-01 20:42 · Score: 1

I want an "AI button" on the front of the case, just like the old Turbo button
which gave incredible improvements in performance.

--
USB, USB, USB!
Who has any spare ports available? by Keybounce · 2016-05-02 05:56 · Score: 1

So who has any spare ports available anyways?
Most of these "sticks" I've seen are so wide that they block adjacent ports, so that means it will take up a pair (at least, all the USB ports I've seen have been a pair here, a pair there).
You have devices that need to be powered by the computer, and cannot go into a hub.
You have your high-speed devices that take up a full port.
You have printers that refuse to work properly through a hub.
By the time you're done? I'm glad that USB is hot swappable, because I'm constantly swapping already.