Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. is the latest technology giant to get into the artificial intelligence game, announcing a new platform and services that are designed to help companies adopt AI technologies more easily.

HPE said the focus of its new platform and services is on deep learning, a subset of AI that relates to the development of algorithms, often called neural networks, that are inspired by the structure and function of the human brain.

Deep learning is generally used for tasks such as image recognition and classification, facial recognition and voice recognition. The technology is growing in popularity by the day, but many companies face challenges in implementing it. That’s because deep learning requires, in addition to reams of data, a high-end computing infrastructure to build and train learning models that can recognize patterns in images, videos, text, audio and other data.

That infrastructure is what HPE intends to provide with its new HPE Platform for Rapid Deep Learning Application Development. The company said this is an integrated hardware and software offering based on its Apollo 6500 system that has been optimized for deep learning workloads. It comes with a number of preconfigured deep learning frameworks and libraries and also features automated cluster management software. The platform also supports Nvidia Corp.’s Tesla v100 graphics processing unit chips, which are designed to power highly intensive workloads of this nature.

Alongside this platform, HPE is also lending its own expertise in deep learning. The company is offering what it calls the HPE Deep Learning Cookbook, which is a set of tools created by its own AI research team to help customers choose the best hardware and software for specific deep learning tasks. HPE said the tools can be used to estimate the performance of a variety of hardware platforms, allowing customers to identify the best hardware and software stack for each specific deep learning project they’re running.

HPE also said it’s looking to collaborate on AI projects with others and to educate those who want to expand their existing AI knowledge. To do so, the company is creating a number of HPE AI innovation labs that it will use to collaborate with universities and enterprises on AI research. It also announced Enhanced HPE Centers of Excellence in Houston, Palo Alto, Tokyo, Bangalore and Grenoble, France, that will provide select customers with access to its latest AI technology and expertise.

“We live in a world today where we’re generating copious amounts of data, and deep learning can help unleash intelligence from this data,” said Pankaj Goyal, vice president of HPE’s artificial intelligence business. “However, a ‘one size fits all’ solution doesn’t work. Each enterprise has unique needs that require a distinct approach to get started, scale and optimize its infrastructure for deep learning.”

Image: HPE