December 11thRene Haas, CEO of SoftBank's chip design company Arm, said in a recent interview that he was concerned that humans could lose control of artificial intelligence (AI).
When asked what keeps him up at night thinking about AI, Haas noted, "My biggest concern is the inability of humans to control AI." He said people had to have some control, a way to set aside a back door and close it.
Haas was interviewed at Arm's headquarters in Cambridge, England. He estimates that 70% of the world's population has been exposed to ARM-designed products in some way.
The next chapter for ARM
As Haas ponders the potential drawbacks of AI, he is also convinced that Arm's next chapter will see the company as important to the generative AI revolution as it is to smartphones, where chip designs are now ubiquitous.
"AI will be integrated into everything we do, into everything we do, into everything we do, how we live, and how we play," Haas said. This will change everything in the next 5 to 10 years. ”
Haas, who became Arm's chief executive in February last year, has been trying to reduce Arm's reliance on the shrinking smartphone industry by applying Arm's technology to areas such as PCs, servers and electric vehicles. The company also offers more complete designs to mobile phone customers, aiming to generate more revenue for each device sold.
In the smartphone market, ARM has become ubiquitous. Of the 1.4 billion smartphones sold each year, almost all processors have ARM instruction sets embedded in them, and more than 99% of them are based on ARM designs or technologies.
Now, Haas also sees an exciting opportunity in the cloud data center space. Large language models, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard, require a lot of storage and data capacity, and Haas aims to capture 50% of the global market share in the coming years.
Of course, ambition alone does not guarantee success, and it remains to be seen whether ARM can be at the heart of the future of AI. So far, the main beneficiary of this boom has been Nvidia. However, the future of ARM is still bright. According to ARM's CFO Jason Child's roadshow in September, ARM's revenue opportunity will grow to $28 billion by 2025 and grow at a rate of 17% per year.
Haas has also focused on dominating what is known as edge computing — systems that run from devices in the home or office, rather than from the cloud.
Haas noted, "As these edge devices get smarter and more and more technology is being crammed into this pocket, this is a really great opportunity for Arm." ”
Geopolitical implications
In its latest interview, Haas also mentioned the impact of geopolitical factors on the company's business. China is both an opportunity and a risk for Arm, which derives about 25 percent of its revenue from the world's second-largest economy. Arm needs to contend with U.S. restrictions on exporting high-end chips to China while maintaining its share of the Chinese market.
"I think CEOs 10 years ago didn't talk to *** as often as they do today," Haas noted. ”
Haas said that while the company adapts to changes in the Chinese market, a more pressing issue is how to get talent, especially in the UK.
He said the UK remains central to the company's future, but [British] politicians should not ignore the need for overseas talent for tech companies to grow their ranks. "We were born here and we intend to stay here. Please make it easier for us to attract world-class talent and attract engineers to work at ARM. ”
*: Finance Associated Press].