Accelerating Into AI with Machine Learning & Deep Learning

I consistently hear from customers that one of their biggest challenges is how to best manage and learn from the ever-increasing amount of data they collect daily. It’s a significant contributor to why the artificial intelligence (AI) market is forecasted to increase from more than $640 million in 2016 to nearly $37 billion in 2025, with AI workloads growing at an estimated annual rate of 52%¹. The rapid growth of data and new technology advancements has made it economically viable to adopt machine learning to disrupt new markets, improve operations, and pave a competitive advantage. Working with our strategic technology partners, we’re able to bring these powerful capabilities to organizations of all sizes and industries in more ways than ever before.

At this week’s Supercomputing 2017 conference, we unveiled THREE new solutions that converge our HPC and data analytics expertise along with next generation strategic partner technology and equip organizations to unlock faster, better and deeper data insights. First, what we coin as the ‘bedrock’ of any modern data center, the PowerEdge C4140, an ultra-dense, accelerator optimized server platform designed to handle intensive AI workloads. Coupling the C4140 with our HPC knowhow, we’ve built a new family of Ready Solutions; the Dell EMC Ready Bundles for Machine Learning and Deep Learning enable organizations to realize advancements across a wide array of use cases.

When you consider the applications of machine and deep learning in areas like strengthening security with facial recognition, improving health care, and understanding human behavior in retail, the possibilities are endless and exciting!

Take, for example, these customer stories:

MasterCard leverages artificial intelligence to help protect consumers against credit card fraud. With approximately two million applied rules to automate spend tracking; they handle 160 million transactions per hour and 52 billion per year. Utilizing Dell EMC machine learning technologies, they’ve accelerated the speed with which they can retrieve and validate transaction data, as well as apply new rules to prevent authorized card usage. Of equal importance to stopping unauthorized charges is ensuring that genuine charges are not falsely flagged as fraudulent and prohibited. As their machines become more intelligent, MasterCard is moving closer to a model of complete and proactive oversight, where inaccuracies are prevented before they occur, and customer disruption is minimized.

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin is a leading academic center that uses machine learning for critical scientific discoveries, such as identifying brain tumors, developing cures for cancer, and forecasting severe weather conditions, like tornados. In partnership with Dell EMC, Intel, and Seagate, their “Stampede 2” supercomputer is ranked No. 12 on the latest TOP500 list as one of the most powerful computer systems in the world with its more than 18 petaflop performance. These technologies empower them to support thousands of researchers running simulations too complex for their normal desktop environments.

As another example, Simon Fraser University’s “Cedar” supercomputer is helping researches in Canada to study DNA bacteria patterns for collaborations with worldwide public health agencies.  Unlike the many HPC systems built for narrowly targeted applications, Cedar is designed to run a wide variety of scientific workloads, including those related to personalized medicine, green energy technology, AI and the AI sub-fields of machine learning and deep learning. Simon Fraser’s research findings are leading to better and faster infectious disease control measures, like new vaccination programs, to help keep humankind safe.

We’re at the forefront of many incredible breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, stemming from the mastery of machine and deep learning, and only scratching the surface of what’s possible.  We told you in October that we’re committed to investments in this space and making AI a reality for all customers. We’re making excellent headway as a company and have already made several exciting announcements, including accelerated computing platforms to support our customers’ unique AI performance needs.

Working with the best and brightest minds to better the world is what energizes me and our Dell EMC teams every day to propel our HPC mission towards artificial intelligence-based customer and industry outcomes. Stay tuned for even more announcements and customer successes in this space, as together we advance technology to drive human progress.

¹ Tractica, Artificial Intelligence Revenue to Reach $36.8 Billion Worldwide by 2025, Aug 2016