The Incredible Worldbuilding and Lore of Modern AI
I remember reading something about how cool it was that we have 5 massive freshwater lakes in the middle of one of our continents. How this is something you would find in a fantasy novel like Lord of the Rings. Frodo's quest took him across The Great Lakes. Even the name belongs in an epic.
Then I got to wondering about other things that also have this sort of grandeur, that would fit right in a grand fantastical world. Skyscrapers. Volcanoes. Nuclear weapons.
But the one that stuck out to me the most was the advent of Artificial Intelligence, not what AI is or what it's capable of, but simply the way it has come to be. The process and logistics around it.
ASML, in the North: once part of the wealthiest empire the world had seen. They build monstrous machines the size of whales, worth half a billion dollars each. The precision of these machines is incomprehensible. The work they do is so advanced that the technologies developed just to make them function border on science fiction. Nobody else can do what ASML does in the North.
TSMC, in the East: a small nation in the shadow of the second-largest empire in the world, constantly under threat of occupation and conquest. They are the only buyers of these machines. The only ones who can make them work. They use them in the cleanest, most controlled environments in the world. Nobody else can do what TSMC does in the East.
Nvidia, across the ocean: within the largest empire the world has ever seen (undoubtedly in decline), the wealthiest company in the world. They design different ways rocks and metals can be cut and send these designs to TSMC. Nobody else can do what Nvidia does across the ocean.
Without one of them, none of this works. They are all reliant on each other. This is all they do. Nobody else can do what each of them does. And none of them can do what the others do.
And somehow, across different parts of the world, these organizations have come together in labs to precise with materials so specialized to produce a chip.
All the wealthiest people and corporations in the world treat these chips like gold. Like salvation, legacy, their future. They spend as much money as they possibly can to obtain as many as they can.
And what do they do when they get these chips?
They build immense, monolithic structures. They create a perfect environment inside and put the chips in. Then they run enough electricity through them to power nations, and the hope is that if they run enough electricity, they will be able to create the machine GOD.