Microsoft Research Scientists Employ NVIDIA GPUs For Machine Learning

Machine learning and artificial intelligence aren't easy things to grasp, but both are critically important for technology to march on, our surroundings to get smarter, and the digital assistants within our phones to become more useful. Microsoft Research and NVIDIA are teaming up this week to showcase what's possible when two giants in the space link hands and share insights. NVIDIA GPUs are being used by Microsoft Research, and the results are impressive.


Microsoft Research employs around 1,000 scientists and engineers to make significant product contributions and address some of society’s toughest challenges. According to information released by both companies, an increasing amount of their work is focused on machine learning. Here's a bit from NVIDIA:

"Three trends are driving a resurgence in machine learning. First, data of all kinds is growing exponentially. Second, researchers have made big improvements in the mathematical models used for machine learning. Finally, GPUs have emerged as a critical computational platform for machine learning research.

These drivers are resulting in game-changing improvements in the accuracy of these models. That’s because GPUs allow researchers to train these models with more data – much more data – than was possible before. Even using GPUs, the process of training these models by digesting mountains of data takes weeks. Replicating this training process using CPUs is possible – in theory. In reality it would take over a year to train a single model. That’s just too long.

Reducing training time is important because the field is evolving fast. Researchers must accelerate through design and training cycles quickly to keep up. GPUs just cost less, too. The hardware is cheaper and sucks up much less power."

Microsoft Research has just deployed a computer system packed with NVIDIA GPUs, and it's going to be very interesting to see what's produced from it.