Ricursive Intelligence is betting on AI-designed chips to help solve the compute crisis

Ricursive Intelligence founders Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini believe more efficient AI chip design could help solve the compute crisis. The founders took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Wednesday to detail how their startup is developing AI that can design chips, learn from each iteration, and improve subsequent designs, all with the goal of automating and accelerating the chip design process.

“There is this understanding that in the next five years we are going to have at least 10,000x more demand for compute, and that’s somewhat potentially conservative,” Goldie said on stage. “So we don’t want to build 10,000 times more data centers. We think that we need to help by making chips that are more efficient, that use the bandwidth in those data centers more efficiently, that use the wafers and fabs more efficiently, because even if we make [data centers] in space or something, I don’t know, you won’t see the sun anymore.”

While some may be scared by the thought of AI designing its own chips, Goldie argues that letting AI handle chip design will allow humans can focus on developing applications and exploring new possibilities that can expand what they can accomplish with computing.

“I think the way everything is shifting is that humans come bring their great ideas and creative thoughts, and execution is handled by AI,” Goldie said. “And this is happening in chip design, software development, and other places. And that’s something that recursive does for chip design.”

The founders say AI is challenging traditional chip design methods by discovering unconventional layouts that can outperform traditional ones. For example, AlphaChip, the AI system the founders previously developed, produced a circular, “donut-shaped” arrangement of chip components that initially surprised engineers but ultimately proved to be successful.

The founders also argued that AI-designed chips will make it possible to create all sorts of chips that might not have been possible before.

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