Aitomatic announced SemiKong, the world’s first open-source AI Large Language Model (LLM) designed specifically for the semiconductor industry. Unveiled at SEMICON West 2024, SemiKong aims to revolutionize semiconductor processes and fabrication technology, potentially reshaping the $500B semiconductor industry in the next five years.
SemiKong is the result of a collaborative effort within the AI Alliance, an industry-wide initiative promoting open and responsible AI development. Built upon the open-source Llama3 model from Meta, an AI Alliance member, SemiKong leverages expertise from leading semiconductor companies, including Tokyo Electron, and AI specialists like FPT Software. This approach exemplifies the AI Alliance’s commitment to open science and cross-industry innovation.
In industry-specific tasks, SemiKong demonstrates marked improvements in accuracy, relevance, and understanding of semiconductor processes, often outperforming larger general-purpose models. This performance boost offers potential for accelerated innovation and reduced costs across the semiconductor value chain.
Dr. Christopher Nguyen, CEO of Aitomatic, leader behind the SemiKong project, and Co-Lead of the Foundation Models Focus Area in the AI Alliance, stated: “SemiKong is set to redefine semiconductor manufacturing. This open innovation model, enabled by the AI Alliance, harnesses collective expertise for industry-specific challenges. At Aitomatic, we’re using SemiKong to create Domain-Specific AI Agents that tackle complex fabrication problems with unprecedented effectiveness.”
Dr. Yann LeCun, VP and Chief AI Scientist at Meta, the company behind Llama3 and a member of the AI Alliance, added, “SemiKong, built on Llama3, shows open-source AI’s potential to drive specialized innovation. It’s a prime example of why we advocate for AI openness.”
Atsushi Suzuki, Director of Product Lifecycle Management DX at Tokyo Electron and AI Alliance member, highlighted: “As an industry expert collaborating through the AI Alliance, I believe SemiKong represents a significant step forward in applying AI to semiconductor manufacturing.”
Daisuke Oku, Senior Specialist at Tokyo Electron and an early proposer of a Semiconductor Industry Model, added: “SemiKong is the beginning of an exciting journey in open-source AI for semiconductors. Aitomatic’s innovative approach has the potential to create huge leaps for our industry.”
Dr. Phong Nguyen, Chief AI Officer of FPT Software, noted: “FPT Software is excited to be part of this innovative initiative and eager to explore the potential applications of this model, especially to spark the convergence of global AI and Semiconductor. We are confident that our participation will reinforce our position as a frontrunner in shaping the future of the global semiconductor industry.”
As SemiKong drives down semiconductor production costs, consumers could see more powerful smartphones, laptops, and smart home devices at lower prices within the next few years.
Aitomatic, Tokyo Electron, and FPT Software are all AI Alliance members. Founded in 2023, the AI Alliance builds, enables, and advocates for open innovation across the AI technology landscape, including software, data and models, safety, security and trust, tooling, evaluation, hardware, education, open science, and advocacy.
SemiKong was developed as one of AI Alliance core projects addressing substantial cross-community challenges and providing an opportunity for individual contributors and members to collaborate, build, and make an impact on the future of AI.
Dr. Anthony Annunziata, IBM Director of AI Open Innovation and AI Alliance Engagement, commented: “This work exemplifies how The AI Alliance’s mission of open collaboration can bring together diverse expertise to drive advancement in applying AI to critical industries like semiconductor manufacturing.”
SemiKong will be available for download on HuggingFace and GitHub. It serves as a foundation for companies to develop proprietary models while leveraging industry-wide knowledge. The next, more powerful version of SemiKong is planned for December 2024, with the first process-specific models expected by September 2024.
The collaborators are committed to ongoing R&D, aiming to build an ecosystem of AI tools that will propel the semiconductor industry into a new era of innovation and efficiency. This breakthrough could accelerate progress in fields from quantum computing to renewable energy technologies.
