Intel promotes AI with multi-dimensional efforts in technology, application, and ecology

Intel held a media sharing session on AI practice today, introducing the latest Intel® Nervana™ Neural Network Processor (NNP) and the next-generation Intel® Movidius™ Myriad™ Visual Processing Unit (VPU) to Chinese media for the first time, and released the "Intel China Financial Industry AI Practice Manual" and "Intel China Healthcare Industry AI Practice Manual". At the same time, as Intel's annual sharing of artificial intelligence, this event systematically introduced Intel's important progress in the field of artificial intelligence in the past year, fully demonstrating Intel's technological leadership: a comprehensive portfolio of artificial intelligence hardware products, and unique advantages in combining software and hardware; application innovation: focusing on diversified scenarios and industries, accelerating application breakthroughs and implementation; ecological construction: multi-dimensional efforts, open cooperation, and promoting the continuous coordinated development of industry, academia and research.

Julie Choi, vice president of Intel’s AI Group and general manager of Intel’s AI Platforms and Market Research, said: “The next wave of AI is here, and we are accelerating towards a new data-centric era. Intel continues to lead and drive the development of transformational technologies, especially AI, focusing on hardware, software and ecosystem collaboration in the field of AI. Intel continues to strengthen its AI portfolio, which is the industry leader in breadth and depth and is expected to generate more than $3.5 billion in revenue in 2019. We will better listen to customer needs and work with the industry and partners to accelerate the application of AI in all walks of life.”

Julie Choi, vice president of Intel's Artificial Intelligence Division and general manager of Intel's Artificial Intelligence Platform and Market Research, delivered a speech at the event

Combining software and hardware to lead AI technology innovation

AI application scenarios are diverse and complex, and a single solution cannot meet diverse needs. Intel provides comprehensive AI solutions to build collaborative development of hardware and software. In terms of hardware, Intel provides the most complete and flexible hardware product portfolio and computing platform, including CPU, GPU, FPGA, NNP, VPU, etc., to meet different workload requirements from cloud to edge to device; in terms of software, Intel provides fully optimized software to accelerate and simplify the development and deployment of AI technology, covering multiple levels such as libraries, frameworks, tools and solutions.

As Intel's first dedicated ASIC chip for complex deep learning for cloud and data center customers, the Intel Nervana NNP has ultra-high scalability and ultra-high efficiency. The Intel Nervana Neural Network Training Processor (Intel Nervana NNP-T) strikes a balance between computing, communication, and memory, and can be expanded nearly linearly and energy-efficiently for both small-scale clusters and the largest pod supercomputers; the Intel Nervana Neural Network Inference Processor (Intel Nervana NNP-I) has high energy efficiency and low cost, and its flexible form factor is very suitable for running high-intensity multi-modal reasoning at actual scale. Baidu shared the cooperation between the two parties on Intel NNP-T and Baidu X-Man, optimizing PaddlePaddle to improve the efficiency of increasingly complex model training and jointly promote cooperation in the industry. At the same time, Intel's latest next-generation Intel® Movidius™ Myriad™ visual processing unit (VPU) can provide industry-leading performance with its unique and efficient architecture advantages.

Julie Choi, vice president of Intel's AI Group and general manager of Intel's AI Platform and Market Research, demonstrates the Intel Nervana Neural Network Training Processor NNP-T

Intel is also promoting future-oriented computing innovations, such as in neuromorphic computing: Intel's neuromorphic research community recently welcomed the first batch of corporate members such as Accenture, Airbus, General Electric, and Hitachi. The scale has tripled in the past year and now has more than 75 organizations; the 8 million neuron neuromorphic system code-named "Pohoiki Beach" containing 64 Loihi research chips is now available to researchers. In addition, in terms of quantum computing, Intel, its partners and the scientific research community are committed to accelerating the development of the entire quantum computing stack, step by step approaching the goal of "quantum practicality". This year, it launched the first Cryogenic Wafer Prober, a quantum cryogenic detector designed to accelerate the research of quantum computing solutions.

Diverse scenarios accelerate breakthroughs in AI applications

As we move toward a data-centric world, artificial intelligence is accelerating its integration with all walks of life, bringing about profound changes. Intel continues to strengthen its data processing, transmission and storage capabilities, giving full play to the depth and breadth of its solutions, which can be customized according to customer specific needs and quickly expanded to all walks of life, thus playing an important role in customers' artificial intelligence deployment and applications. Currently, Intel has worked with partners in a wide range of industries such as industry, agriculture, energy, transportation, Internet, finance, and health to effectively promote a series of artificial intelligence application innovations.

Intel's artificial intelligence has penetrated into various fields of the Chinese market, accelerating the company's artificial intelligence journey and continuously opening up broader business opportunities. The "Intel China Financial Industry AI Practice Manual" and the "Intel China Healthcare Industry AI Practice Manual" were released at this event. Both manuals include three parts: trends, practice, and technology. They show Intel's practice of promoting the continuous integration of artificial intelligence and the industry with forward-looking insights and detailed interpretations, which is of great reference significance for the implementation of artificial intelligence in more industries. At the same time, QingCloud introduced at the event the practice of significantly improving AI reasoning performance and comprehensively upgrading the AI ​​platform with the support of Intel, as well as the prospect of in-depth cooperation in the future; Jiangfeng Bio introduced its in-depth cooperation with Intel on pathological AI projects such as cervical cancer screening.

Multi-dimensional efforts to create an AI innovation ecosystem 

Intel is not only a technology company that leads innovation, but also a company that continuously drives the evolution of the ecosystem. While driving its own innovation, it also promotes industry joint innovation and long-term development. Intel is committed to building an open and cooperative AI innovation ecosystem, stimulating AI innovation, and giving partners unique ecological value, such as industry docking, talent training, and innovation incubation, covering the three dimensions of speed, breadth, and depth.

In terms of cultivating AI professionals, Intel has launched the AI ​​Developer Program, the AI ​​Future Pioneer Program, and industry-education integration solutions, including supporting the Ministry of Education's Chinese University AI Talent International Training Program, participating in the Ministry of Education's industry-university-research research projects, exclusively sponsoring the first China Graduate Artificial Intelligence Innovation Competition, and establishing connections with the top 20 universities in the country. It also plans to train more than 10,000 developers in FPGA programming and other related software within three years. In terms of continuous support for AI innovation projects, the "Intel AI Top 100 Innovation Incentive Program" will select more than 100 outstanding AI innovation teams in phases, and provide them with technical guidance, development cost subsidies, market promotion, ecological docking and other full-scale support. In addition, Intel has also worked with ecological partners to jointly promote AI open innovation platforms, AI Industry Innovation Alliances, AI Open Innovation Experience Centers, and AI Global Competitions. In terms of accelerating application practice, Intel continues to expand landing scenarios and deepen the application integration of artificial intelligence technology and industry.

Intel will continue to lead the development of artificial intelligence technology, accelerate application breakthroughs, and drive innovation in the smart, connected world with its global vision, cloud-to-end products and technologies, and an expanding ecosystem.