Inference is giving AI chip startups a second chance to make their mark

AI adoption is reaching an inflection point as the focus shifts from training new models to serving them. For the AI startups vying for a slice of Nvidia's pie, it's now or never. Compared to training, inference is a much more diverse workload, which presents an opportunity for chip startups to carve out a niche for themselves …

[nijam]

Unavoidably, I read the opening of the article as "AI adoption is reaching an infection point ..."

[ZaphodHarkonnen]

Which is a real shame. As there are some epic aspects to ML algorithms that will have a huge impact on how many things are done.

Sadly the people with their hands on the money wheel will tend to choose the long term stupid options. Instead of the long term good options.

[Alan Mackenzie]

Big words the author doesn't seem to understand.

An "inflection point", by definition, is a point on a curve where the curvature is zero. It doesn't mean "starting to do something very good" any more than "quantum leap" does.

I think, up till now, the adoption of "AI" has been growing, such that the graph of adoption against time has been curved upwards. If we have passed an inflection point, then it will now be curved downwards and growing ever more slowly, thus approaching a steady state, a saturated and stable market, such as we have seen with PCs and smart phones.

Is this really happening with "AI" yet?

[RM Myers]

Re: Big words the author doesn't seem to understand.

I'm afraid mister Webster disagrees with you. The first definition in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary is: "a moment when significant change occurs or may occur : turning point". The second definition listed does agree with your definition. Like many other words, the definition that applies to a specific topic, in this case Math, isn't the more commonly used definition in everyday speech. Whether that is good or bad, I'll leave to other to argue.

[Alan Mackenzie]

Re: Big words the author doesn't seem to understand.

Then Mr. Webster is wrong. "Inflection" means "non-bending", no doubt from the Latin. What etymology does it give for its slack use of "point of inflection"?

This would appear to be a non-rigorous dictionary, the sort that would also define a "quantum leap" as a "massive jump", and a "paedophile" as a "child-abuser".

The problems with misusing technical terms like this include making the speaker/writer appear pompous and ignorant, and also diluting and eventually removing the meaning altogether from these precise terms. This is the process illustrated by George Orwell in his novel 1984, where he gave the example of "free" no longer being allowed to mean free software, but only "a dog being free of fleas".

Perhaps you could suggest some alternative term to use for the point in the uptake of LLMs when the curve stops bending upwards and instead starts bending downwards.

[matjaggard]

Re: Big words the author doesn't seem to understand.

Language is allowed to change, be imprecise and have two opposing definitions. Annoying I agree but scientific terms are particularly bad at being used by others and taking on new meanings.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Big words the author doesn't seem to understand.

One of the reasons Latin phrase are still used in legal documents - as a "dead" language it doesn't evolve.

[degraded RAID]

Re: Big words the author doesn't seem to understand.

Latin still gets new words, because it's necessary

[JLV]

Re: Big words the author doesn't seem to understand.

Good of you to catch Mr. Cambridge with his pants down as well.

> a time of sudden, noticeable, or important change in an industry, company, market, etc.

[matjaggard]

Surely there's a better way?

Surely there's a better way to refer to autumn 2025 than "last northern hemisphere fall"