NVIDIA has announced plans to train 100,000 developers this year in deep-learning skills to help reach its ambitions to be an industry-leader in artificial intelligence.

Over the past week, NVIDIA has made several AI-related announcements including unveiling the NVIDIA Metropolis intelligent video analytics platform which intends to make “cities safer and smarter by applying deep learning to video streams for applications such as public safety, traffic management, and resource optimisation.”

Today’s announcement of training 100,000 developers marks a tenfold increase over last year. The developers will be taught through NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Institute which provides both self-paced online labs and instructor-led workshops in select locations around the world. In addition to the training, developers have access to NVIDIA’s deep-learning technology software and reliable Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 P2 GPU instances in the cloud for their projects.

"AI is the defining technology of our generation," said Greg Estes, vice president of Developer Programs at NVIDIA. "To meet overwhelming demand from enterprises, government agencies and universities, we are dramatically expanding the breadth and depth of our offerings, so developers worldwide can learn how to leverage this transformative technology."

According to analyst firm IDC, 80 percent of all applications will feature AI components by 2020. If true, keeping updated with the latest related tools and technologies will be vital for future success. If not, AI skills will still be highly valuable.

"There is a real demand for developers who not only understand artificial intelligence but know how to apply it in commercial applications," said Christian Plagemann, vice president of Content at Udacity. "NVIDIA is a leader in the application of deep learning technologies and we're excited to work closely with their experts to train the next generation of artificial intelligence practitioners."

In order to meet its goal for 100,000 deep-learning trainers by the end of this year, NVIDIA will provide:

• New Deep Learning Training Labs: NVIDIA is working with Amazon Web Services, Facebook, Google, the Mayo Clinic, Stanford University, as well as the communities supporting major deep learning frameworks to co-develop training labs using Caffe2, MXNet, and TensorFlow.

• New Courseware for Educators: NVIDIA has partnered with Yann LeCun, director of AI research at Facebook and computer science professor at New York University, to develop the DLI Teaching Kit, which covers the academic theory and application of deep learning on GPUs using the PyTorch framework. Hundreds of educators are already using the DLI Teaching Kit, including the University of Oxford and the University of California, Berkeley.

• New DLI Certified Training Partners: NVIDIA is expanding the Deep Learning Institute ecosystem by providing materials and certifying instructors from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, IBM, and Microsoft.

Beyond its current focus on Amazon’s cloud, NVIDIA is working alongside the relevant partners to port lab content to Microsoft Azure, IBM Power, and IBM Cloud’s solutions.

Are you impressed with NVIDIA’s deep-learning training pledge? Share your thoughts in the comments.