Microsoft builds massive supercomputer for smarter AI

Supercomputers, like this one at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, are designed to tackle the world's toughest computing challenges. Microsoft has built an enormous supercomputer for artificial intelligence work, a new direction for its Azure cloud computing service. The machine has 285,000 processor cores boosted by 10,000 graphics chips for OpenAI, a company that wants to ensure AI technology helps humans. Microsoft announced the machine at its Build conference for developers on Tuesday. Supercomputers, the most powerful computing machines on the planet, are typically used for the most taxing problems. That includes jobs like simulating nuclear weapons explosions, predicting the Earth's future climate and more recently, seeking drugs to fight the coronavirus.