Microsoft Supports a Startup: Microsoft supports a startup focused on enhancing AI efficiency,
with Touchcast’s innovative technology to reduce the computational resources and energy required for generative AI.
Content
Touchcast
An Innovative Solution
Cognitive Memory Content Delivery Technology
Importance of New Infrastructure
Collaboration with Microsoft
Massive Growth of Generative AI
Touchcast
Touchcast, a startup working on storing repetitive queries for generative AI to improve system efficiency,
plans to raise $100 million from venture capitalists, including Microsoft, which has invested in OpenAI.
Based in New York, Touchcast stores and delivers responses to commonly used AI prompts,
reducing the computational resources and energy needed to use models like OpenAI’s GPT-4.
The goal is to help developers and companies deploy AI more broadly at lower costs and with faster response times.
Ido Segev, the CEO of Accenture, believes that the value of Touchcast, supported by his company,
will reach at least $350 million after the new funding, declining to provide details on the capital injected by Microsoft.
He added in an interview that Touchcast is in discussions with major investors in Silicon Valley.
An Innovative Solution
Companies are moving towards deploying AI systems to simplify daily tasks,
However, the increasing demand has revealed a critical bottleneck in electronics,
especially GPUs, the rare chips used to train and run AI models.
Segev sees Touchcast’s approach as an innovative way to improve computing resources and energy use.
Cognitive Memory Content Delivery Technology
The startup recently launched cognitive memory content delivery technology,
which is similar to having several small offices in different parts of a large library instead of a single main office.
This technology makes material access easier and helps improve the performance of the AI system.
Importance of New Infrastructure
Segev explained, “When users ask the same question, they repeatedly use the large language model.”
In the AI-driven web era, “having a new category of infrastructure is crucial to sustainably delivering these magical experiences on the internet scale.”
Collaboration with Microsoft
Touchcast is working with Microsoft to create systems to accelerate and expand the distribution of generative AI queries.
They are deploying cognitive memory technology across Microsoft’s Azure data centers,
helping run Azure OpenAI tools for customers and significantly reducing costs.
Massive Growth of Generative AI
Segev added, “The massive growth of generative AI is on track to achieve economic value estimated in the trillions,
but its fate depends on solving the escalating computing and energy crisis.”
Microsoft Supports a Startup