AI for the Masses
Artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance computing (HPC) were a topic of discussion at HPE Discover in Las Vegas this spring. At the event, John Furrier and I interviewed Dr. Nicholas Nystrom from the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center. This taxpayer-funded entity makes supercomputer resources freely available to organizations that want to conduct research. Nystrom was joined by Bill Mannel of HPE to discuss the center and what’s changing in HPC.
Rather than focus on getting into the Top list for HPC dominance, PSC is trying to be a center for learning and advancing applications for data value and artificial intelligence. This is a key focus of its deep learning and high performance computing activities.
Get Ready for SC17
As a preview to the Supercomputing 2017 conference in Denver – #SC17, take a look at this curated playlist from our interview with Dr. Nystrom. He talks about a changing paradigm in supercomputing. This change of course is driven by the data. All this talk of AI and machine learning is not pure hype rather it’s a real journey. These trends arebeing driven by the intersection of data growth and HPC.
Nystrom and Mannel discuss applications for AI in life sciences and also how commercial organizations are taking advantage of this government funded resources to advance learnings in healthcare, financial services and a variety of other industries.
China, Inc. has been very aggressive recently. In a quest to reduce reliance on US technology, China has succeeded in cracking the top gun supercomputing ranks this past decade. The bottom line for Pittsburgh is it doesn’t want to enter into an “Exaflop Arms Race.” It sees HPC shifting from being all about the highest performance bragging rights around performance to an industry focused on getting value from data and applying insights to improve the human condition.
Check out the Interview
