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Today's Topics:
1. ADF supercomputer brings AI to decision-making (Stephen Loosley)
2. Re: ADF supercomputer brings AI to decision-making
(Tom Worthington)
3. Re: ADF supercomputer brings AI to decision-making (Scott Howard)
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2025 21:40:13 +0930
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] ADF supercomputer brings AI to decision-making
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
ADF supercomputer brings AI to decision-making
'Critical? defence system hits major milestone.
By Tom Williams on Apr 15 2025 12:55 PM
[Photo caption: Australia's defence supercomputing infrastructure 'Taingiwilta'
is now fully operational. Photo: ADF]
Australia?s latest defence supercomputer will use artificial intelligence to
?support complex decision-making at scale?, the Australian Defence Force (ADF)
says, after the high-performance machine was declared fully operational.
The computing infrastructure known as Taingiwilta ? which means ?powerful? in
the language of the Indigenous Kaurna people ? first came online at the Defence
Science and Technology Group site in the northern Adelaide suburb of Edinburgh
in 2022.
The project was the first of its kind in Australia, and replaced older systems
which were reaching capacity.
The new system achieved what is known as Final Operational Capability in
December 2024 ?after intensive research and project development?, the ADF
announced on Friday.
Taingiwilta was ?working orders of magnitude faster than a standard computer?
and would "leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence? technologies,
it added.
Governing AI systems in defence
AI technologies have become increasingly prevalent in national security and
defence infrastructure in recent decades, but the rise of generative AI (genAI)
technologies in recent years has significantly improved capabilities in tasks
such as identifying potential threats and making decisions.
The expanding use of genAI ? which also powers Large Language Models (LLMs)
such as OpenAI?s popular ChatGPT ? has drawn some criticism, including concern
over governance of AI systems in defence and the possibility of errors in AI
decision-making.
Asked to comment on which guardrails or procedural guidelines would be followed
when AI technologies were used in its decision-making processes, a Defence
spokesperson told Information Age, "All technologies, including AI, are used by
Defence in accordance with Australia?s domestic and international legal
obligations, including International Humanitarian Law."
The Australian government has previously proposed mandatory guardrails for
high-risk uses of AI, in order to allow for ?human control or intervention in
an AI system to achieve meaningful human oversight?.
However, AI use in defence is likely to be treated separately, according to a
September proposal paper by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.
?Australia proposes to align with other jurisdictions, which have treated
national security and defence applications separately from civilian
applications, including in the US and in the EU,? the department wrote.
Defence Minister Richard Marles and Chief Defence Scientist Professor Tanya
Monro at the Defence High Performance Computing capability launch in South
Australia in 2022. Photo: Tristan Kennedy / ADF
Defence has pursued the development of ?advanced capabilities? with its AUKUS
security partners the United Kingdom and the United States, including in AI and
autonomy, electronic warfare, and quantum technologies.
According to the ADF?s 2024 Integrated Investment Program, Defence has seen
?the ability to acquire, move and use data? as ?foundational? to its
warfighting capabilities.
?The integration of automated processes, such as artificial intelligence and
machine learning, will enable a greater volume of data to be processed,
exploited and disseminated faster,? the program stated.
In the US, OpenAI has itself partnered with the US military to use its AI tech
to improve drones? ?ability to detect, assess and respond to potentially lethal
aerial threats in real-time".
Social media giant Meta has also allowed US government agencies ? including
those in defence and national security ? to use its genAI models, while
Microsoft and Google have both faced protests for selling AI platforms to the
Israeli military.
Supercomputer to accelerate ?cutting-edge? tools
Chief Defence Scientist Professor Tanya Monro said the ADF?s Taingiwilta system
would support multiple Australian defence platforms.
?This critical, secure, and sovereign capability enables Australia?s best minds
to tackle some of Defence?s most challenging problems at pace,? she said in a
statement.
?The vital work undertaken across the Defence ecosystem will accelerate the
delivery of cutting-edge capabilities for Defence.?
The supercomputer would also be used to ?bolster secure collaboration
opportunities and support world-class research across Australian industry,
academic, and national security agencies?, Defence said.
While the ADF has not shared any specifications confirming Taingiwilta?s
computing power, it is understood to be one of the most powerful computers in
the world.
Australia?s other most powerful supercomputers are the Setonix supercomputer at
Perth?s Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre ? ranked 45 in the Top 500
ranking of supercomputers ? and CSIRO?s Virga, which is ranked 88.
--
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2025 09:08:20 +1000
From: Tom Worthington <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] ADF supercomputer brings AI to decision-making
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
On 4/15/25 22:10, Stephen Loosley wrote:
> ADF supercomputer brings AI to decision-making 'Critical? defence
> system hits major milestone. By Tom Williams on Apr 15 2025 12:55
> PM ...
Do you use supercomputers for AI?
--
Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au
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Message: 3
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2025 09:58:36 +1000
From: Scott Howard <[email protected]>
To: Tom Worthington <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] ADF supercomputer brings AI to decision-making
Message-ID:
<cacnpsnw9ltyx7sw34br7fgs8qr00yagqv4+qumomrho7-fv...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 9:16?AM Tom Worthington <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Do you use supercomputers for AI?
>
Absolutely!
Over the past few years the worlds of HPC (High Performance Computing,
where you would normally use the term "Supercomputer") and AI have somewhat
merged to the point that there's often not a lot of distinction between
them. Even without that, many of the larger AI systems really deserve the
term on their own anyway.
HPC is generally a CPU-based workload, whilst AI is generally a GPU-based
workload, but many of the newer/larger HPC clusters now have a significant
number of GPU resources as well as the two worlds start to merge.
The largest 'public' supercomputer at the moment is El Capitan at LLNL
which has 11,136 nodes, each with 4 CPUs and 4 GPUs. #2 (Frontier) and #3
(Aurora) on that list also have significant numbers of GPUs (3 times GPUs
as CPUs for Aurora!)
xAI's "Colossus" system has over 100,000 GPUs, and is focused 100% on AI.
Is that any less deserving of the name 'supercomputer' than El Capitan?
Scott
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