AI should focus more on hardware, and channel partners can help

NeuroMem Technologies, headquartered in Singapore, has been successfully selling IP to some of the biggest players in the industry including Intel, for the last 25 years. The company’s founder and CEO Prof. Dr. Pierre Brunswick was in town for the ‘AI Everything’ summit and he spoke to Anita Joseph about AI, the importance of hardware in AI and the need for channel partners to be aware of the latest AI trends and movements.

Dr. Pierre Brunswick. CEO, Neuromem Technologies

UAE’s technological journey
The UAE has had a very successful technology run so far. It has quickly and seamlessly adopted global trends into its social and economic fabric, and has always been receptive to new ideas and experiments. However, the focus here has always been on software, deep learning and solutions. Let me explain this better. Imagine for a moment that the entire AI infrastructure begins with a roof. For this roof, we have a ceiling called machine learning, which is absolutely vital. Now, under this roof we have several pillars, all of which are vital to holding up the entire AI structure.  However, today, everyone is focusing only on one of these pillars, and that is deep learning. This is like not a healthy trend because then the whole structure becomes unstable because it stands only on one pillar. What we must realize is that there are other, equally vital pillars, such as reinforcement learning, edge computing and neuromorphic hardware. Neglecting these will result in a failure of the entire AI structure, and also invite additional costs.

Neuromem’s role
In this context, Neuromem would like to step in and empower the developers in this sector by using our technology to help them, focus not only on one angle but get a broader view on all existing solutions for AI.  We don’t believe that data can predict everything and so neuromorphic hardware becomes critical, it is a natural transition. That is why we have more and more platforms being developed and more people working on this technology which is complementary to data. We need data, but data can only anticipate anomalies. Technology will help detect anomalies on the go. We don’t need to send all the information to the cloud. It doesn’t make sense especially on biometrics, we’re sharing on blockchain. All the data need to be protected and secured. We need to put AI with non-hackable solutions.

Role of Channel Partners
The role of channel partners in the effective implementation of AI is critical. Channel partners are not mere distribution agents; they are the direct point of contact with the customers. The channel market is strong in the UAE, but they need to realize the need to add value to their offerings, and step up. The need of the hour is to have hardware focused, alert and aware partners who can educate every user about the need to re-examine their AI journey. Remember, every Proof Of Concept (POC) that channel partners generate has worldwide potential. This not only helps brings down costs, but also bolsters the country’s GDP. There is a lot of potential in the region, especially in the UAE-absolutely no shortage of talent or hardware knowledge at all. However, they are pushed to focus early on, on software and deep learning, and this needs to change. Channel partners can play a big role here and we can help them in the right direction. This summit, hopefully, is a turning point in this sense, and we’re glad to have met a lot of people here who think like we do. All I can tell the channel partners is, if you don’t focus right now on a comprehensive AI education strategy, you may have a hole bigger than you think before people become mature enough to take on robots.

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