Intel, Nvidia, and others have figured out you need help getting started with AI
Some chip makers are starting to supply data as a value-added service. Silicon-slingers, especially those with products for AI, know that their products are worthless without information from which knowledge can be extracted; it’s like selling an empty brain. As a result, they’re building or acquiring data sets to make their products more attractive. Lattice Semiconductor last month made an under-the-radar acquisition of an outfit named Mirametrix, which has AI assets that include eye-tracking and gaze detection data. Ownership of Mirametrix’s datasets could open more doors for Lattice — which primarily sells FPGAs — into fast-growing industries like automotive and wellness. The company isn’t selling the data set, but instead algorithms that car companies could use to build systems that monitor drivers and alerts them if they doze off or are not paying attention to driving. « With that data, we can actually provide a better experience and do things that other people will find very difficult to do, » Esam Elashmawi, Lattice’s chief strategy and marketing officer, told The Register. Elashmawi added that the data isn’t tied to Lattice’s FPGAs, but can be used with chips made by other companies. Mirametrix technology has already been used by companies like Lenovo in laptops.
