AI Decoded: Demystifying AI and the Hardware, Software and Tools That Power It

With the 2018 launch of RTX technologies and the first consumer GPU built for AI - GeForce RTX - NVIDIA accelerated the shift to AI computing. Since then, AI on RTX PCs and workstations has grown into a thriving ecosystem with more than 100 million users and 500 AI applications.

Generative AI is now ushering in a new wave of capabilities from PC to cloud. And NVIDIA's rich history and expertise in AI is helping ensure all users have the performance to handle a wide range of AI features.

Users at home and in the office are already taking advantage of AI on RTX with productivity- and entertainment-enhancing software. Gamers feel the benefits of AI on GeForce RTX GPUs with higher frame rates at stunning resolutions in their favorite titles. Creators can focus on creativity, instead of watching spinning wheels or repeating mundane tasks. And developers can streamline workflows using generative AI for prototyping and to automate debugging.

The field of AI is moving fast. As research advances, AI will tackle more complex tasks. And the demanding performance needs will be handled by RTX.

What Is AI? In its most fundamental form, artificial intelligence is a smarter type of computing. It's the capability of a computer program or a machine to think, learn and take actions without being explicitly coded with commands to do so, or a user having to control each command.

AI can be thought of as the ability for a device to perform tasks autonomously, by ingesting and analyzing enormous amounts of data, then recognizing patterns in that data - often referred to as being trained.

AI development is always oriented around developing systems that perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence, and often significant levels of input, to complete - only at speeds beyond any individual's or group's capabilities. For this reason, AI is broadly seen as both disruptive and highly transformational.

A key benefit of AI systems is the ability to learn from experiences or patterns inside data, adjusting conclusions on their own when fed new inputs or data. This self-learning allows AI systems to accomplish a stunning variety of tasks, including image recognition, speech recognition, language translation, medical diagnostics, car navigation, image and video enhancement, and hundreds of other use cases.

The next step in the evolution of AI is content generation - referred to as generative AI. It enables users to quickly create new content, and iterate on it, based on a variety of inputs, which can include text, images, sounds, animation, 3D models or other types of data. It then generates new content in the same or a new form.

Popular language applications, like the cloud-based ChatGPT, allow users to generate long-form copy based on a short text request. Image generators like Stable Diffusion turn descriptive text inputs into the desired image. New applications are turning text into video and 2D images into 3D renderings.

GeForce RTX AI PCs and NVIDIA RTX Workstations AI PCs are computers with dedicated hardware designed to help AI run faster. It's the difference between sitting around waiting for a 3D image to load, and seeing it update instantaneously with an AI denoiser.

On RTX GPUs, these specialized AI accelerators are called Tensor Cores. And they dramatically speed up AI performance across the most demanding applications for work and play.

One way that AI performance is measured is in teraops, or trillion operations per second (TOPS). Similar to an engine's horsepower rating, TOPS can give users a sense of a PC's AI performance with a single metric. The current generation of GeForce RTX GPUs offers performance options that range from roughly 200 AI TOPS all the way to over 1,300 TOPS, with many options across laptops and desktops in between. Professionals get even higher AI performance with the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPU.

To put this in perspective, the current generation of AI PCs without GPUs range from 10 to 45 TOPS.

More and more types of AI applications will require the benefits of having a PC capable of performing certain AI tasks locally - meaning on the device rather than running in the cloud. Benefits of running on an AI PC include that computing is always available, even without an internet connection; systems offer low latency for high responsiveness; and increased privacy so that users don't have to upload sensitive materials to an online database before it becomes usable by an AI.

AI for Everyone RTX GPUs bring more than just performance. They introduce capabilities only possible with RTX technology. Many of these AI features are accessible - and impactful - to millions, regardless of the individual's skill level.

From AI upscaling to improved video conferencing to intelligent, personalizable chatbots, there are tools to benefit all types of users.

RTX Video uses AI to upscale streaming video and display it in HDR. Bringing lower-resolution video in standard dynamic range to vivid, up to 4K high-resolution high dynamic range. RTX users can enjoy the feature with one-time, one-click enablement on nearly any video streamed in a Chrome or Edge browser.

NVIDIA Broadcast, a free app for RTX users with a straightforward user interface, has a host of AI features that improve video conferencing and livestreaming. It removes unwanted background sounds like clicky keyboards, vacuum cleaners and screaming children with Noise and Echo Removal. It can replace or blur backgrounds with better edge detection using Virtual Background. It smooths low-quality camera images with Video Noise Removal. And it can stay centered on the screen with eyes looking at the camera no matter where the user moves, using Auto Frame and Eye Contact.

Chat with RTX is a local, personalized AI chatbot demo that's easy to use and free to download.

The tech

LINK:	https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/ai-decoded-rtx-pc/...
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