Latest news with #XPlatform
Vancouver Sun
3 hours ago
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Here's what you need to know about 'sovereign artificial intelligence'
'Sovereign AI compute' was the buzz term on the lips of people in B.C.'s artificial intelligence sector at last week's Web Summit conference in Vancouver. It is something increasingly essential to the country's booming AI sector, but is an area where Canada is behind. 'Compute' is the industry's shorthand term for the banks of powerful computer servers and high-speed processors that run AI applications for automation and machine learning. 'Sovereign' refers to the amount of that compute capacity that a country has within its own borders, something that has become more important given U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies and antagonistic stance on trade. Stay on top of the latest real estate news and home design trends. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Westcoast Homes will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Canada has some domestic AI computing power, 'but not at scale,' Gail Murphy, vice-president of research at the University of B.C., said during a panel session on AI sector needs at the Web Summit. Murphy, who is vice-chair of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, noted that Canadian universities have three AI compute sites in Canada for research, but the country needs more for both research and to foster small- and medium-sized enterprises. 'What we're really lacking is providing some of that at scale and to provide it both to the research community, but also to small and medium enterprises creating Canadian (intellectual property),' Murphy said. 'We have to make sure we can build solutions at home because of instability in the world.' Last week, two of Canada's major telecom company's, Bell Canada and Telus, launched bids to be bigger players on that front, with a focus on B.C. Bell has unveiled a plan under the name AI Fabric — a network of six data centres in B.C. it characterized as Canada's biggest AI compute project. Collectively they will provide computing power for research institutes and businesses requiring 500 megawatts of electricity. The first of two seven-megawatt centres is set to open in Kamloops this June, followed by another in Merritt by the end of the year. They will use data processing technology from the U.S. firm Groq, not to be confused with Elon Musk's X Platform's Grok AI. In 2026, Bell plans to open the first of two 26-megawatt data centres in Kamloops at Thompson Rivers University. The second is on the books to open in 2027. There is no timeline for the next stage, but Bell said it is in the advanced planning stage for two more much-larger AI data centres in B.C., each designed to use 200 megawatts of power. Bell didn't put a price on the project, but CEO Mirko Bibic said the company is 'bolstering Canada's AI compute capacity, while laying the groundwork to continue growing our AI economy.' Not to be outdone, Telus announced on Thursday that it will put a NVIDIA supercomputer-powered data centre in Kamloops that will form what the company is calling a sovereign AI factory as part of its $15-billion capital spending plan for B.C. Telus didn't specify the size of its AI factory, but company chief information officer Hesham Fahmy vowed that the AI factory will give 'customers the accelerated computing power needed to grow, compete globally and shape the future of AI right here in Canada.' Bell said one reason it picked Kamloops for its first sites was its stable climate — moderate weather and relatively low risk for natural disasters. The city is also a hub for Canada's major fibre optic cable telecommunication network, which will limit signal delays for AI use, something the industry refers to as 'low latency.' As well, Kamloops has access to B.C. Hydro's grid 'ensuring stable connectivity.' Bell added that Kamloops is close to Vancouver, Calgary and Seattle, but has a lower cost of living. It said that will help with recruiting and retaining the skilled employees it will need for large-scale AI operations. Both Bell and Telus touted the 'clean energy' aspects of their B.C. AI facilities. Telus vowed that its AI factory will be powered by 99 per cent renewable energy while Bell highlighted its 'hydroelectric powered' compute. Bell's commitments to provide computing power requiring 500 megawatts of power means its new data centres could, by themselves, use almost half of the 1,100-megawatt capacity B.C. Hydro's new Site C Dam. The telecom companies' announcements are also being made during a period when prolonged droughts have pushed B.C. Hydro to import electricity, prompting critics to question whether the utility can keep up with demand. Jobs Minister Diana Gibson, however, said the province is rushing to increase its generating capacity. 'We did have a call for power,' Gibson said, referring to B.C. Hydro's May 5 announcement asking for bids from private power producers to provide at least 5,000 gigawatt hours of renewable electricity. 'And there will be more of that coming.' Gibson said the government's commitment is to dramatically increase its renewable energy sector 'and to ensuring that it comes online quickly.' Attitudes about the importance of domestic computing power have shifted dramatically since Trump took office, said Handol Kim, CEO of the Vancouver machine-learning firm Variational AI. 'Five months ago, it didn't really matter,' Kim said during a Web Summit panel session. Now, however, after witnessing Trump attempt to restrict companies such as NVIDIA from selling high-powered processing chips to China, there seems to be increased risks to other countries. Kim said he didn't think it likely that the U.S. would try to throttle Canadian access to computing power, but 'you don't want to be counting on that not happening.' 'Inherently, it's very good for us to have a sovereign compute strategy, just like it's good to have a sovereign power strategy, a sovereign strategy around the supply of resources to enable economic growth,' Kim said. depenner@
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Musk's X Implodes After Trump Praised It as ‘Free Speech Platform'
X, the social media platform bought by Elon Musk, experienced major disruptions today, shortly after President Donald Trump praised is as a 'free speech platform.' 'That was the worst outage I've seen,' one user wrote on X. 'App basically just became posts from exactly 24 hours ago'. Other users reported seeing the homepage welcome screen as if they weren't logged in, while feeds and the ability to post messages disappeared for thousands of users. Starting at roughly 3:45 p.m. ET, reports of outages across X began flooding into the online status-checking website Downdetector. Tens of thousands of users turned to the site, just one of many similar platforms logging website crashes, with reports peaking at 4:15 p.m. as 25,000 complaints came in from across the globe. The X Developer Platform status page reported a 'site-wide outage' noting that 'Some X API endpoints may be affected.' As of 6:15 p.m. reports to Downdetector site had dropped off significantly, although hundreds of outage complaints were still coming in. X Developers had updated their status by this time to note that 'all systems are operational.' The brief outage comes on the heels of Musk's (sort of) departure from the White House, at least in an official capacity, following the fulfillment of his contract as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). During an almost hour-long joint press conference in the Oval Office, Trump lavished praise on Musk, describing his 'service to America' as 'without comparison in modern history.' 'He's already running one of the most innovative car companies in the world... and the most successful space company in, I guess, in history, you would have to say, the largest free speech platform on the internet, etcetera,' Trump said. Outages at X are not uncommon. In fact, this is the third outage in a little over a week. On Monday, the platform suffered a major disruption following a fire in a U.S. data center owned by X. The week prior, another major outage was attributed by Musk, without evidence, to a 'massive cyber attack.' Since Musk took over the platform in 2022, outages and disruptions have been on the rise. In 2023, The Guardian found such issues had been increasing since the buyout as Musk's new tech employees tinkered with the X API, a service allowing other programs to interact with the site. As the world's richest man departs the White House, one might expect he would have more time to ensure that the products and services provided by the many companies he owns and runs are functional. However, as Trump warned during the press conference, 'Elon's really not leaving.' A full explanation has not been given by X for the disruption. The Daily Beast has reached out to X for comment.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Musk's X suffers outage again
Published: Updated: Elon Musk has suffered another blow as his $44 billion prized possession has crashed. His X platform, which he purchased for the eye-watering amount, is down for thousands of users across the US. Downdetector, a site the monitors online outages, shows the issues hit around 3:45pm ET with users citing problems with the app and website. An outage map shows New York City , Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago , Seattle and Los Angeles are experiencing glitches with X. Users are seeing blank newsfeeds when trying to search the platform and recent posts are not loading. The outage comes as Musk showed up to his Oval Office farewell with a black eye. The world's richest man claimed he received the injury from his five-year-old son X, saying they were 'horsing around and I told him to punch me in the face.' 'It turns out a five year old can punch, actually. I didn't really feel much at the time,' he said. While Downdetector's outage map showed major cities in the red, it appears the outage is widespread. Users have flocked to Downdetector to share their frustrations about X being down, with many saying they have no access in Oregon, California, Utah and Arizona. Musk, however, was in Washington DC bidding farewell to the White House. Trump thanked Musk for his work at the Department of Government Efficiency as his five-month stint in office came to an end, and added that Musk would be 'going back and forth' between the White House and private life. The billionaire was handed a large key by Trump before vowing that DOGE's work slashing the federal government's spending would not end with him leaving. He likened his work slashing government spending to a personal form of Buddhism, describing it as a 'way of life' that he hopes permeates throughout the government. Musk's role working for Trump was always intended to be a temporary stint, however his departure notably comes after he broke ranks with the White House and trashed its 'Big Beautiful Bill' earlier this week. He said he was 'disappointed' in the president for 'undermining' the work he did at DOGE, in a parting shot before saying he was returning to his multi-billion-dollar businesses '24/7.' Musk alluded to these complaints in his Friday meeting with Trump, saying his department became the 'DOGE boogeyman' and was unfairly blamed for controversies that weren't his fault. Many of the cuts made by DOGE have not been codified, but Trump said at the meeting on Friday he was 'totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent.' 'This is not the end of DOGE, this is really the beginning,' Musk added.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Another black eye for Elon Musk as his $44bn prized possession crashes
Elon Musk has suffered another blow as his $44 billion prized possession has crashed. His X platform, which he purchased for the eye-watering amount, is down for thousands of users across the US. Downdetector, a site the monitors online outages, shows the issues hit around 3:45pm ET with users citing problems with the app and website. An outage map shows New York City, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles are experiencing glitches with X. Users are seeing blank newsfeeds when trying to search the platform and recent posts are not loading. The outage comes as Musk showed up to his Oval Office farewell with a black eye. The world's richest man claimed he received the injury from his five-year-old son X, saying they were 'horsing around and I told him to punch me in the face.' 'It turns out a five year old can punch, actually. I didn't really feel much at the time,' he said. While Downdetector's outage map showed major cities in the red, it appears the outage is widespread. Users have flocked to Downdetector to share their frustrations about X being down, with many saying they have no access in Oregon, California, Utah and Arizona.
CNN
24-05-2025
- CNN
X temporarily down for thousands of users
CNN — Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was briefly inaccessible for thousands of US users early Saturday, according to which tracks internet disruptions. The site appears to have resolved the outage, as DownDetector reports are down to 690 as of 11:30 a.m. ET. Users in the United States began reporting issues on DownDetector at about 8 a.m. ET on Saturday. By 8:26 a.m. ET, more than 25,000 US users reported issues with the X platform on the mobile app and website. Users also reported issues with the server connection. More than 11,000 users in the United Kingdom and hundreds in other countries have also reported issues. DownDetector tracks user-reported issues, so the numbers may not reflect the full scale of X's outage. Problems accessing X on Friday stemmed from a data center outage, according to a post by X's engineering team on Friday at 8:03 p.m. ET. Tech magazine Wired reported there was a fire at a data center leased by X in Hillsboro, Oregon, on Thursday morning. According to Downdetector, users began experiencing issues on Thursday at about 2:00 p.m. ET. According to the X developer platform, there was a site-wide outage from Thursday to Friday that has been 'resolved.' But logins with X began experiencing 'degraded performance' on Friday and the 'incident is ongoing.' 'Our team is working 24/7 to resolve this. Thanks for your patience — updates soon,' X wrote in the post. 'Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms. I must be super focused on X/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out,' Elon Musk, who acquired the platform in 2022, wrote in response to a post on X Saturday morning which said the outages may stem from the data center fire. 'As evidenced by the X uptime issues this week, major operational improvements need to be made. The failover redundancy should have worked, but did not.' X did not respond to CNN's request for comment. In late March, X experienced a widespread outage that was due to a 'massive cyberattack,' according to Musk. X said in 2024 that the site averages about 250 million daily active users. Musk announced on March 28 that he sold X to xAI, his artificial intelligence start-up.
