AI is transforming people’s daily lives and generating massive potential across the entire spectrum of industries

The COMPUTEX Forum began earlier today with guest speakers from several technology industry leaders. The forum is one of the most highly anticipated events of COMPUTEX, the world’s leading information and communications technology trade show, which is organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA). Due to the global pandemic, the show is this year being held completely online through the #COMPUTEXVirtual platform, which uses many of the technologies being discussed over the two-day forum.

In line with the forum’s overall core theme — The New Era of Intelligence — today’s first virtual session examined the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in a panel titled AIoT Evolution. The invited speakers from Micron Technology, Intel, Supermicro and NVIDIA explored the trends related to AI and how it is changing almost every facet of daily life.

“We are absolutely living in a transformative age,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO of Micron Technology. “Today’s economy is unquestionably based on data, driven by the innovative technologies that make that data more accessible, more effective and more useful.”

Advanced data analytics technologies are forecast to add US$13 trillion in global economic opportunity by 2030, and “all that added value is driven by our ability to make better and faster decisions based on the data all around us,” Mehrotra said. “But Timely data insight cannot be achieved with today’s memory and storage architectures.”

Two major trends are accelerating the global shift in how the world acquires, manages and gains insights from data: AI and 5G networks. AI is being used to solve real-world problems in fields such as smart agriculture and water conservation, offering massive potential to impact the world in a positive way. Meanwhile, 5G is helping create networks fast enough to allow moving data center capabilities to edge applications.

Nash Palaniswamy, vice president and general manager of AI, HPC and data center accelerators solutions and sales at Intel, addressed the tech titan’s partnership with the US-based Montefiore Medical Center, which aims to use AI for screening patients based on imaging to provide earlier warning of illness and allow for preventive treatment. The center has created a system that establishes a “digital representation” of patients based on all data collected from the center’s devices and imaging systems, as well as remote sensing at home. This holistic understanding of the patient is evidence of an AI-healthcare intersection that is redefining medicine.

Jerry Chen, head of business development, manufacturing and industrials at NVIDIA, said: “It might seem like AI is inescapable in our daily life nowadays,” adding that humanity is “really only at the beginning of the age of AI.”

Economists refer to AI as a general-purpose technology, which is transforming civilization and fueling the latest industrial revolution. Thanks to its potential to learn, improve and operate autonomously, AI will get even more powerful over time, providing massive benefits to every industry.

“Simply put, every industrial sector will be transformed by AI. The potential for value creation is enormous,” Chen said.

“We can’t wait to transform the future of the industrial edge, the Industrial AI of Things, with all of you,” he added.

At the edge, AI has quickly changed how people use technology, from improving audio and video in teleconferencing to creating personalized workouts — two examples that are particularly evident amid the pandemic. These advancements have been made possible in part by accelerators and optimization in all parts of the ecosystem.

“Software and firmware … are essential to any optimized total solution,” said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro.

Faster compute at the edge has gone hand in hand with increasingly faster mobile networks, which allow for deployments of devices in even greater numbers, as well as solutions that are more ambitious in their scope.

“We’re starting to see the first 5G standalone network deployments,” said Michael Clegg, vice president and general manager of 5G and embedded/IoT at Supermicro, referring to telecommunications networks built specifically for 5G.

He added that such deployments are where “we get the real benefits of 5G networks” — such as low-latency communications.