WASHINGTON — Artificial Intelligence technology has grabbed headlines for months now. We’ve seen everything from the rise of ChatGPT to deepfake videos and pictures.
But, leading technology company NVDIA wants to show the many ways AI can improve life.
On Tuesday, the tech giant sponsored a D.C. summit at the Ronald Reagan International Trade building downtown. The summit brought in everyone from tech companies, to vendors, to aspiring AI workers to interface and discuss the future of AI.
If you’re not familiar with much more than the stock, NVDIA makes the technology inside computers and networks like the platforms and chips.
To find out more we turned to Dion Harris, he leads the way for advanced computing and data centers for NVIDIA. He gave WUSA a look at how the company’s technology could impact Northern Virginia’s ongoing issue with data centers and how the region can better understand weather and climate change.
“We created this revolutionary new computing model called accelerated computing,” Harris explained. “Basically, it allows to take a GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) pair it with the CPU (Computer Processing Unit) only computer and make it run much more efficiently. By doing this you can basically reduce the amount of energy and reduce the amount of space required for that data center. It also can reduce the cost.”
Harris pointed out that currently data centers across the country can require large amounts of energy and space. But, with NVDIA’s faster processing platforms, he believes in can help reduce that impact overall.
When it comes to using the AI to look at climate and weather impact- he pointed to NVDIA’s ‘Earth 2.’
“It’s basically a platform that allows you to visualize simulations of data AI and data observed all within a single pane of glass,” he said as he pointed to a screen with a 3D global rendering of the Earth. “We can get very detailed, highly resolved information and a much more informative understanding of the impacts, which is especially important as you look at some of the coastal regions and understanding how they will be affected by rising tides or different flow patterns.”
Harris also pointed out that while AI can be helpful in the long term view of climate, it may have a faster impact on understanding and simulating weather predictions.
“When you're trying to map a dynamic system or a chaotic system, the key point is that you have to do lots of simulations," Harris said. "[Earth 2] basically gives you a good understanding of what the long tail events are and some of the extreme events that you could expect to occur given a set of conditions (and simulations).
Harris said he hopes the summit will show this use of AI and accelerated computing is just the beginning.
“I think we see all the excitement. You see a lot of the incredible work that's being done on the platform,” he said. “There's a lot of potential and there's a lot of excitement because that's really about harnessing the power of AI.”