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Intel Beefs Up Its Plans For Artificial Intelligence

By Caroline Diana
Published on: 14:52 PST, Mar 26, 2017

The world will soon be banking on Artificial Intelligence (AI). This means sectors like manufacturing, education, and tech will soon be relying on machine intelligence to get the job done.

Like always, Intel is following in the footsteps of other tech giants like Apple and Google to stay ahead in the AI game.

Intel recently acquired Nervana, which focuses solely on AI.

According to the press release, the company will be aligning its AI efforts under a single cross-Intel organization: the Artificial Intelligence Products Group (AIPG).

“I am personally very energized about the opportunities before us as an industry. As CEO of Nervana, an AI company that Intel acquired last year, I saw what could be done. Now, after six months here, I see how the world can change when a company like Intel focuses on an effort. I believe this new organization will have a huge impact, not only for Intel, but upon the entire evolving AI space,” said Naveen Rao, who is now the vice president and general manager of the Artificial Intelligence Products Group at Intel.

According to analysts from Technavio, the global artificial intelligence market in the industrial sector to grow at a CAGR of 52.65 percent during 2017-2021. The artificial intelligence (AI) market in the United States education sector is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 47.5 percent during 2017-2021, according to a new report by market research firm Research and Markets.

As part of this AI initiative, Intel will be exploring novel architectural and algorithmic approaches to inform future generations of AI. “This includes a range of solutions from the data center to edge devices, and from training to inference – all designed to enable Intel and its customers to innovate faster. This will be the home for AI innovation at Intel,” said Rao.

As always, Intel aims to be a trend setter. The company has earlier made its presence felt in computational trends, such as personal and cloud computing.

“Intel intends to rally the industry around a set of standards for AI that ultimately brings down costs and makes AI more accessible to more people – not only institutions, governments and large companies, as it is today,” he said.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the world around us and will bring new capabilities to everything from smart factories to drones to sports to health care and to driverless cars. Data is the common thread across all these applications, and our strategy is to make Intel the driving force of the data revolution across every industry,” he added.

Intel’s Kaggle Competition to Combat Cervical Cancer

Intel recently kicked off an artificial intelligence (AI) Kaggle competition focused on cervical cancer screening.

The competition is part of Intel’s strategy for enabling state-of-the-art AI in the industry by working, among other ways, to make AI training and tools broadly accessible to developers through the Intel® Nervana™ AI Academy.

Registration for the competition began last week. The entry deadline is June 14. The prize pool totals $100,000 for the top-three finishers, including $50,000 for the first-place competitor. Additionally, a $20,000 special prize will be awarded to the competitor with the Best Intel Tools Usage. See the official registration site for complete rules.

“We aim to challenge developers, data scientists and students to develop AI algorithms to help solve real-world challenges in industries including medical and health care,” said Doug Fisher, senior vice president and general manager of the Software and Services Group at Intel.

“It is inspiring to see how MobileODT’s breakthrough optical diagnostic devices and software services, combined with Intel-based AI that Kagglers develop through this competition, will greatly improve MobileODT’s quality assurance workflow. This will aid the ability to make real-time determinations on treatment, and provide a first-line response to women around the world to help detect cervical cancer early,” he said.

[Featured Image by Elise Amendola/AP Images]

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