Arm’s CEO, Rene Haas, is concerned about the developments surrounding AI. He fears that, at some point, humans will lose control of this technology.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Haas says he fears that, based on current developments, humans will lose control over AI at some point. According to him, sufficient control mechanisms must be built into this technology so that humans can still maintain control. Here, he refers to a backdoor, allowing humans to stop AI systems.
Despite these fears, Haas informs Bloomberg that within the next five to ten years, AI will find its way into everything people do: how we work, live, and play. So there is no escaping the technology.
Commit to AI
Still, Arm wants to take advantage of AI and will focus more on chip technology for AI, especially for the large amounts of hardware needed in cloud data centres. However, Arm must compete with Nvidia’s currently very popular solutions.
Haas also wants Arm to focus more on providing the essential chip technology for peripherals and environments.
Less dependence on the smartphone industry
By focusing more on other areas, the idea is that Arm can be less dependent on the smartphone industry, where its products are now most widely used. The chip technology vendor, which spun off from (former) parent company Softbank this year via an IPO, also wants to make its technology more available in PCs and laptops, servers and electric vehicles. Smartphone customers get more complete chip designs to bring in more profit per device sold.
China
Speaking to Bloomberg, Haas is not worried about the impact of U.S. export restrictions on China. About a quarter of Arm’s profits come from this country. According to Arm’s CEO, his company fully complies with U.S. government export restrictions and does not yet pose an immediate problem.
The lack of qualified personnel does pose an immediate problem for Arm. This is very difficult to find, concludes Haas.
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