While the United States is home to more than half of the top universities in the world, there is more work to be done when it comes to artificial intelligence education – and that’s something NVIDIA is trying to improve. According to U.S. News & World Report, only 10% of the top global AI universities are in the United States.
“There is a gap between the knowledge and depth and understanding that we have around AI in the United States and where we should be,” NVIDIA VP of Developer Programs and Corporate Marketing Greg Estes said during the NVIDIA AI Summit on Oct. 8. “What are we going to do about it?”
In addition to NVIDIA encouraging its own employees to leverage AI for their everyday tasks, the company also offers AI training to help external organizations grasp the power of the emerging technology.
Estes pushed back against the idea that AI is “going to put us all out of business.”
“What it’s going to do is it’s going to help you. It’s your assistant to help you create things,” he said. “We’re using AI across our different workflows [at NVIDIA], and it is a huge productivity boost.”
Estes emphasized that NVIDIA has hired more employees, “We’re hiring people just to be able to implement [AI] and have those skills and abilities,” the VP said.
Estes focused on the ability to upskill the U.S. workforce for the future of AI as well as implementing AI curricula into higher education.
“Nations who have an AI platform will have competitive advantages over nations that do not,” Estes said. … I’m talking about an educated population of people who are going to get up and they’re going to go to work in the morning, and they’re going to invent new things, they’re going to do new science, they’re going to come up with new approaches.”
NVIDIA Training program provides comprehensive training offerings tailored for technical practitioners, including developers and IT professionals. Within this framework, the Deep Learning Institute (DLI) focuses specifically on developer training, equipping individuals with essential skills in AI and deep learning.
NVIDIA offers free AI training through the DLI for public and non-profit institutions. According to Estes, the DLI consists of three different training modules for educators, students, and developers
For educators, NVIDIA offers free teaching kits that are regularly updated and consist of tests and curriculum as well as information for integrating AI into the classroom. According to Estes, NVIDIA’s university ambassador program has been very successful – particularly in India.
“We will train and certify an educator from a university to be able to teach our classes and then let them teach [students] for free at that university,” Estes explained.
NVIDIA also offers free classes for students, including courses that are online and self-paced.
Estes highlighted that the “best thing” that the Deep Learning Institute provides is learning paths for developers and IT administrators. He said that NVIDIA works with companies to help them design a customized program tailored to their employees’ needs.
“That pathway is going to be a little bit different if you’re trying to learn cybersecurity than if that pathway is taking your learner into robotics,” Estes said. “We can work with you to help co-design programs that make sense in your environment, because it absolutely is not one size fits all.”
Estes highlighted that NVIDIA has trained more than 600,000 developers worldwide, with their number one partner being Lockheed Martin.
NVIDIA also partners closely with state and local governments as well as higher education institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Estes also highlighted NVIDIA’s partnerships with Alabama, New York, Michigan, Oregon, and Utah as well as HBCUs, including North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and communities of learning like Black Women in AI.
“No matter where you sit in that ecosystem, we’re open for business and ready to engage with you,” Estes concluded.
To learn more, watch Estes’ entire session on-demand here.
