Trends

Deep learning AI enhanced by MIT-born Akamai and Neural Magic

AuthorCassie Gong

Reading Time3 min

PublishedMarch 13, 2024

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Headline

Context

Akamai Technologies , the cloud company that powers and protects life online, and Neural Magic , a software developer focusing on accelerating AI workloads, have unveiled a strategic partnership this week aimed at enhancing deep learning capabilities across Akamai’s distributed computing infrastructure. The collaboration will provide enterprises with a high-performing platform to efficiently run deep learning AI software on CPU-based servers. Neural Magic’s solution enables deep learning models to operate on cost-effective CPU-based servers, rather than relying on expensive GPU resources. By leveraging automated model sparsification technologies, the software accelerates AI workloads, serving as a CPU inference engine. This complements Akamai’s ability to scale, protect, and deliver applications at the edge, enabling the deployment of capabilities across Akamai’s globally distributed computing infrastructure. The partnership will offer organizations lower latency and improved performance for data-intensive AI applications.

Evidence

Pending intelligence enrichment.

Analysis

Furthermore, the collaboration is poised to drive innovation around edge-AI inference across various industries. The combined capabilities of Akamai and Neural Magic are particularly suitable for applications generating massive amounts of input data close to the edge, providing affordable processing power and security in proximity to data sources. Akamai recently announced its Generalized Edge Compute (Gecko) initiative , embedding cloud computing capabilities into its extensive edge network to support such applications and workloads. John O’Hara, SVP of Engineering and COO at Neural Magic, emphasized the challenge of delivering AI models efficiently at the edge, highlighting the lack of specialized or expensive hardware as a barrier. We intend to make AI smarter and faster. Scaling Neural Magic’s unique capabilities to run deep learning inference models across Akamai gives organizations access to much-needed cost efficiencies and higher performance as they move swiftly to adopt AI applications. Meanwhile, Ramanath Iyer, Chief Strategist at Akamai, expressed the intention to enhance AI’s efficiency and speed, offering organizations cost efficiencies and higher performance as they embrace AI applications.

Key Points

Akamai Technologies and Neural Magic have formed a strategic partnership to enhance deep learning AI capabilities across Akamai’s distributed computing infrastructure.
Neural Magic’s software enables deep learning models to operate efficiently on CPU-based servers, complementing Akamai’s edge computing capabilities.
The collaboration aims to drive innovation in edge-AI inference, offering organizations lower latency, improved performance, and cost efficiencies for data-intensive AI applications.