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AI could cure cancer in his lifetime, says Arm CEO Rene Haas. "I've always thought that the killer app for AI is health," Haas said in an interview with the BBC. "AI is going to not only shorten the amount of time that drugs can be invented, it's going to shorten the amount of time that you test them." Haas has led Arm since February 2022, after joining the British chip designer in 2013.
Before Arm, he spent seven years at Nvidia, where he was vice president of its computing products business. "I believe in our lifetime, AI will help cure cancer," he said. However, achieving this requires enormous computing power, and the chips needed for cancer research or humanoid development are being consumed by AI companies building data centers measured in multiple gigawatts.
"Right now, it's quite constrained. We need more fabs before we can put a data center in space," Haas said. Building new factories costs tens of billions of dollars and takes two to three years.
The industry is in an "absolutely supply-constrained environment." Even without the chip bottleneck, AI curing cancer in the next few years is uncertain because cancer is a collection of over 100 diseases with varying patient responses. AI can help identify targets and predict drug behavior, but clinically relevant impact remains limited. Data center boom: Micron's Manish Bhatia and Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon both highlighted unprecedented memory shortages affecting AI accelerators and conventional products like phones.
US data center construction has surged, with over 1,400 projects approved by the end of 2023. These centers are increasingly contentious due to environmental impacts. A Gallup survey found 70% of US adults oppose AI data centers in their neighborhoods, with half strongly opposed.
Source: Business Insider
