New Chip to Push AI

More at the link, how much will it improve computing?  Since the 80s it has been commonly stated that its more about the software than it is about the advances in hardware.   But the task of AI via deep learning has focused the need,  is this a big change?

This chip was demoed at Jeff Bezos’s secretive tech conference. It could be key to the future of AI.
The chip on show at Amazon’s MARS event—alongside karate-chopping robots and Martian bases—is many times faster than conventional silicon chips.  by Will Knight in Technology Review

On a dazzling morning in Palm Springs, CA, recently, Vivienne Sze took to a small stage to deliver perhaps the most nerve-wracking presentation of her career.

She knew the subject matter inside-out. She was to tell the audience about the chips, being developed in her lab at MIT, that promise to bring powerful artificial intelligence to a multitude of devices where power is limited, beyond the reach of the vast data-centers where most AI computations take place. However, the event—and the audience—gave Sze pause.  ... "