The next 5 years in AI will be frenetic, says Intel’s new AI chief – PCWorld

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Research into artificial intelligence is going gangbusters, and the frenetic pace wont let up for about five yearsafter which the industry will concentrate around a handful of core technologies and leaders, the head of Intels new AI division predicts.

Intel is keen to be among them. In March, it formed an Artificial Intelligence Products Group headed byNaveen Rao. He previously was CEO ofNervana Systems, a deep-learning startup Intel acquired in 2016. Rao sees the industry moving at breakneck speed.

Its incredible, he said. You go three weeks without reading a paper and youre behind. Its just amazing.

It wasnt so long ago that artificial intelligence research was solely the domain of university research labs, but tech companies have stormed into the space in the last couple of years and sent technical hurdles tumbling.

Weve hit upon a set of fundamental principles, and now we can really get to that point where we can innovate and iterate quickly on them and build really new cool things, he said.

Rao likened it to the development of concrete. It took a while for humans to invent and perfect concrete, but once that happened, all sorts of things suddenly became possible.

Thats why I think the next five or six years are going to be really, really fast moving. It will stabilize at that point after we figure out what the stack looks like and who the players are in thestack, he said.

Intels new AI group represents its biggest step yet toward being one of those leaders. The group brings together all of the companys hardware and software researchtied to machine learning, algorithms and deep learning.

While Intel is best known as a chip maker, its AI research also includes software packages that help developers add AI capabilities to Intel-based hardware. By doing some of the software work, Intel aims to make it easier for its customers to build AI-based systems. That, in turn, will help it sell hardware.

The company does something similar in other areas of its business.One of the areas its already focused on is self-driving cars. The vehicles use artificial intelligence to make split-second decisions about how to navigate roads and are a good example of a research area thats seen rapid progress.

A car used by Intel to test the companys autonomous driving technology as seen on May 3, 2017 in San Jose, California.

A lot of Intels competition comes from the big tech companies of Silicon Valley. The U.S. is one of the biggest players in AI, thanks to companies like Google and Facebook, and Rao also credits Canada and the U.K. as pioneers. But China is beginning to make its presence felt.

I was in China a few months ago. Its really taking off, he said. The folks there are very hungry to build these kinds of things, and the skill sets are building up really quick, so I think in the next couple of years youll start seeing China be a major player.

Martyn Williams covers general technology news for the IDG News Service and is based in San Francisco. He was previously based in Tokyo.

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The next 5 years in AI will be frenetic, says Intel's new AI chief - PCWorld