Intel Vision, the invitation-only event, brought together business leaders to share a preview of the most current and future technology in Orlando, Florida, from May 8-10. Overall, the event provided valuable insights into each strategic business unit and critical networking opportunities for partners to collaborate, share their latest innovations, and drive exponential growth and progress. But the underlining and maybe the most important theme was one of progress moving hand-in-hand with a responsibility to protect humanity and the planet.
Pat Gelsinger, CEO at Intel, enters the stage with energy and excitement as he discusses what he describes as the “Siliconomy.” It is where humanity and technology interconnect in every part of our lives as we live and work. And make no mistake about it, at Intel’s core is a desire to drive technology forward to improve lives while also protecting them.
Gelsinger then moves into the five technology superpowers - compute in everything, connecting everyone and everything, infrastructure at scale, AI to drive actionable results, and sensing where machines are adopting human-centric abilities. All of which lead to Intel’s aggressive innovation timeline to develop 5 nodes in 4 years, a goal they are on track to achieve.
In addition, these superpowers are driving edge native resilient architecture built on software and services. This evolution is affected by physics (speed and scale), land (keeping data at the edge), and economics (cost dynamics). And maybe the most talked about aspect - AI. It’s power and capabilities, but at the same time, the need for an open ecosystem that provides choice and, ultimately, trust. To drive AI and edge, Intel provides Dev Cloud for early access to tools, Gaudi2 AI processors for these demanding workloads, and OpenVINO allows users to develop once and deploy across platforms.
As AI conversations continued throughout the week, we learned of the challenges in developing AI solutions driving 60-80% of the initial solutions to fail. It was interesting to understand the challenges of connecting the silos of data as it is hidden in private and unique sources. Accessing and managing the many models running AI at the edge is hard. After tens of thousands of deployments, many lessons have been learned, which has led to real progress. Some examples include reducing food waste, getting quicker diagnostics, solving issues in the factory, and tracking and managing energy usage.
With every AI conversation comes the aspect of responsibility. This theme was highlighted throughout the week as Intel embodies responsibility in everything they do. Many breakout sessions were led by representatives from Intel Labs. They are solving future world problems in conjunction with other tech leaders and academia to make AI ethical and safe.
With responsibility comes security. During the keynote, Gelsinger removed his jacket to reveal a t-shirt featuring Trust no 1 (or 0). Security is always a concern, and there is a new level of threat intelligence to secure data at rest, in flight, and in use. Advances in confidential computing deliver confidentiality, integrity, and attestation. Later sessions dig deep into securing data in use via fully homomorphic encryption to operate on the data without ever decrypting it. The data stays encrypted throughout the process.
As the conversation is brought full circle back to responsibility, we are all reminded that these advancements should never be at the expense of the planet leading straight into the efforts around sustainability. Intel’s goal is to be the most sustainable semiconductor manufacturer in the world. Performance per unit of energy is becoming the driving force for the industry. And no sustainability discussion is complete without a discussion around liquid cooling, specifically immersion for the data center. UNICOM Engineering develops and deploys immersion solutions for efficiency and density.
Gelsinger closed on Intel being a steward of Moore’s Law: Delivering exceptional engineering through collaborative innovation that you can confidentially trust - welcome to the Siliconomy.