If you're finding it harder to get access to GPUs in the cloud to train your AI model, you're not alone. The combination of a global chip shortage and increased demand for AI model training may be leading to longer wait times for some cloud GPU users. Some GPU users are waiting longer to access cloud-based GPUs than they are accustomed to waiting, according Gigaom AI analyst Anand Joshi. While Joshi doesn't have any firsthand knowledge of cloud platform's GPU expansion plans, he said the wait times customers are experiencing are an indication that the cloud platforms have not been able to obtain new GPUs at the pace they had expected or wanted. That, he says, may be impacting their ability to expand GPU cloud environments to keep up with increasing demand for model training, which is the most computational demanding component of the AI lifecycle.

Cassie, the ostrich-inspired bipedal robot has crossed a new milestone by traversing a distance of 5 kilometres in an outdoor environment in under an hour, untethered and on a single battery charge. According to its inventors, including robotics professor Jonathan Hurst from Oregon State University (OSU) in the US, Cassie is the first two-legged robot to use machine learning to control a running gait on outdoor terrain. One of the biggest challenges in designing bipedal robots, the researchers explained, is because running requires dynamic balancing – the ability to maintain balance while switching positions or otherwise being in motion. In the case of Cassie, whose knees bend like an ostrich's, they said the robot taught itself to run using a machine learning algorithm that helped it make infinite subtle adjustments to stay upright while moving. "The Dynamic Robotics Laboratory students in the OSU College of Engineering combined expertise from biomechanics and existing robot control approaches with new machine learning tools," Mr Hurst said in a statement.

As the global chip shortage disrupts industries from home electronics to autos, a few small Japanese suppliers are stepping in to meeting the ballooning demand. Staying at home during the pandemic is fueling increased purchases of laptops, smartphones and games, which in turn has led to a shortage of semiconductors used in other industries. Large automakers have been forced to cut production -- globally, the sector could lose $60 billion in sales in 2021 as a result, according to IHS Markit. "Chip suppliers are doing well because orders of automotive and large household appliance chips are expanding," said Shoichi Arisawa, an analyst at Iwai Cosmo Securities Co. In addition, the auto sector is embarking on a long-term shift to add more high-performance chips for 5G wireless and autonomous driving systems.

Honda Motor Co. has boosted its operating profit outlook for the current fiscal year, a sign sales are progressing well despite the global chip shortage that is disrupting the auto industry's supply chain. The automaker is targeting an operating profit of ¥520 billion ($5 billion) for the 12 months through March, compared with a prior forecast for ¥420 billion, it said in an exchange filing Tuesday. That compares with analysts' average projection for ¥469 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The rosier-than-expected outlook comes as a global chip shortage is straining many automakers. Housebound consumers have ramped up purchases of personal computers, tablets and video games, depleting semiconductor supplies that are essential to the technology needed in modern-day cars.

Automakers around the world will likely be forced to continue production cutbacks in the coming months before a global semiconductor supply shortage can be resolved, industry experts say. Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. have said they partially halted production at factories around the world due to the chip shortage just as they began recovering from pandemic-forced plant shutdowns. Demand for chips, widely used in electronic devices including those in vehicles, has been surging across various sectors since last fall as the global economy picked up. "A gap in demand and supply for semiconductors suddenly occurred late last year due to a coincidence of some events including a sharp recovery in global auto sales, robust sales of smartphones and installment of the 5G networks," said Yoshiharu Izumi, senior analyst at SBI Securities Co. As video game sales jumped with people spending more time at home, robust production of game consoles ahead of the rollouts in November of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X console from Microsoft Corp. also contributed to the chip supply crunch, experts say.