Talk Intermediate First Talk

Envisaging An Open Source Bridge Across Nvidia’s AI Moat

Approved

Session Description

Brief Description

NVIDIA’s proprietary CUDA software, architecture, and programming platform has become the de facto standard for developing and running AI workloads on GPUs, creating a significant moat that entrenches NVIDIA’s dominance in AI hardware. As AI becomes an increasingly critical technology, this raises concerns around vendor lock-in, reduction in competition, and troubling geopolitical implications for countries seeking to build resiliency for their nascent AI industries. Efforts to create open-source translation layers (such as ZLUDA) or drop-in replacements like AMD’s ROCm have either been stymied or haven’t found purchase.

Discussion Points

The technical and ecosystem advantages that have made CUDA so dominant, and why is this a cause of concern for industry and nation-states alike?

What are the prospects and limitations of open source alternatives like ROCm, ZLUDA, and OpenCL.

Building the “CUDA killer”: What would it take to create an open-source ecosystem that rivals CUDA?

Can policy interventions help balance this need for openness with incentives for innovation in an extremely fast-paced field like AI?

Should governments, therefore, help build and champion an “open” AI technology stack?

References

https://www.techspot.com/news/102294-beyond-gpu-how-deep-nvidia-software-moat.html

Session Categories

FOSS

Speakers

aytas_too_much

Research Analyst (Compute Governance and Semiconductor Geopolitics) | Independent (alternatively, Maitri Research Grant Recipient I guess?)

Satya is an independent policy researcher and consultant working at the intersection of semiconductor geopolitics and AI/Compute governance. His other research interests are eclectic and include anything from emerging military technologies to cat care and maintenance.

As a recipient of the Aus-India Maitri Research Grant, he is currently working on exploring pathways for countries to build resilient semiconductor ecosystems. Prior to this, Satya worked with the High-Tech Geopolitics team at the Takshashila Institution, Bangalore.

He is a graduate of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, and has completed Takshashila's Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (Technology and Policy) programme.

Updates on his work can be found at https://linktr.ee/Satya_Sahu, and he can be reached at linkedin.com/in/satyashoovasahu .

Reviews

This is an interesting and well written CFP! Approving

Reviewer #1 Approved

is there any information regarding the speaker and his experience in this field?

Reviewer #2 Not Sure

Looks like a good proposal to me. Approved from my side

Reviewer #3 Approved