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The International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) kicked off in Frankfurt yesterday with the release of the latest list of the 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world. US machines still top the ranking, but China has the most computers on the list (219 versus 116 for the US).

Supercomputers have already turbocharged some AI applications. For example. the US’s Summit supercomputer (pictured above), which leads the Top 500, has already run a complex machine-learning model for climate research faster than any other machine.

Still, AI researchers say gaining access to supercomputers can be a challenge because they are in high demand, while preparing programs to run on them is a relatively complicated and time-consuming exercise. At this year’s event, supercomputer makers and operators showed how they plan to make that easier.

The link for this article located at MIT Technology Review is no longer available.