Dell Technologies customers building real-world AI apps

LAS VEGAS -- AI implementations beyond mere chatbot interactions with large language models have permeated the data centers of Dell Technologies World attendees this year.

These implementations have moved into production, as these organizations attempt to sustain real-world uses beyond customer support or querying a knowledge base.

Enterprises that have yet to fully embrace AI technology or processes are going to be left behind in the market, said Jeff Clarke, Dell Technologies vice chairman and chief operating officer, during the Day 2 keynote Wednesday.

"This is the most disruptive technology I've seen in my career," he said. "The threat [to your organization] is existential if you don't respond."

At the keynote, the vendor pitched its Dell AI Factory offering and recent storage hardware refreshes as data center upgrades that will empower AI development for hybrid-cloud uses.

Dell executives at the keynote also confirmed the new parallel file system, codenamed Project Lighting for the past year, would launch to general availability before year's end.

Project Lighting is a software-defined file system built for Dell PowerEdge server hardware, specifically tested on the R660 model. Currently in limited testing, it's similar in concept to offerings from competitors such as DataDirect Networks, Weka and Lustre.

Companies will upgrade for AI workloads, CEO Michael Dell said during a media and analyst Q&A following the keynote.

However, upgrading to this new hardware might not happen quickly for many customers who are dealing with uncertain economic factors, particularly North America and its ongoing tariff dispute, he said.

Dell asserted that the cost of compute to create the tokens that power the underlying large language model (LLM) technology is more prohibitive.

"The importance of this technology is greater than all those problems," Dell said. "Tokens are bigger than tariffs, that would summarize our view of it."

Even when backed by high-end hardware or software, AI initiatives shouldn't be implemented haphazardly, Clarke said, echoing the sentiments of organizations already using AI in production.

Instead, customers should start small, find what works and scale quickly to business needs to avoid wasting time, hardware and resources, he said.

"If you apply AI to a shitty process, you just get a shitty answer faster," Clarke said.

AI implementations

Dauntless XR, a Texas-based company specializing in augmented and virtual reality software, is using AI for object recognition and creating digital twins of atmospheres.

Lori-Lee Elliott

Lori-Lee Elliott, co-founder and CEO of Dauntless XR, said these implementations are also complemented by a more traditional use with content generation using company data. For her, AI use needs to move beyond the chat room visualization and into uses that directly support an organization's business and workers seamlessly.

"When a lot of people think of AI, they think of LLMs," Elliott said. "The end state of [our AI initiatives] -- and we're not quite there yet -- [is Dauntless XR having] a single platform where all of this data lives eventually."

Recent AI marketing hype around Generative AI has buried the decades of prior research and real-world uses of AI, said Chris Sullivan, director of research and academic computing at the Oregon State University College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

His department's research into AI involves demanding high-performance computing (HPC) uses, such as mapping ocean wildlife changes over centuries, photographic research and monitoring of microscopic krill and geographic information systems.

The underlying mathematics and science behind today's AI have existed for decades, but recent advances in connectivity and memory have made the implementation far more feasible and usable to the public.

Chris Sullivan

"The number of times I've heard someone say AI and have no clue about what they're doing is stunning," Sullivan said. "People don't understand the term AI and misuse it so badly that it's become an umbrella that's flipped upside down and catches everything."

The actual bottleneck most organizations will encounter in their AI ambitions comes down to data, he said. Many organizations treat data as a black box and expect off-the-shelf LLMs to help make sense of the digital detritus that has built up over the years.

Many organizations might not even realize their data is ultimately lacking for AI uses, Sullivan said.

"What we really need to do is start the AI down the pathway of data management and put agents in that place to help us understand what's there," he said. "We need [AI data] to be presented in a way that people can leverage it."

AI for the future

AI deployments aren't just the domain of massive organizations, but they could also prove useful for local charities.

A hardware and software donation from Dell Technologies has brought virtual job interview training to Hopeworks, an American nonprofit serving economically disadvantaged individuals.

Dan Rhoton

Hopeworks provides technology training and jobs programs for young adults and other needy individuals in the communities of Camden, N.J. and Philadelphia, said Dan Rhoton, CEO of Hopeworks.

Clients are offered training in modern technology jobs such as web development or data analysis, alongside other career development skills like interviews, resume building and networking.

Dell donated PowerEdge servers and other associated hardware, alongside the technology stack of the Dell AI Factory, to create job interview simulations using Dell Digital Assistants, Rhoton said.

Clients can provide their resumes and job descriptions to more accurately calibrate the interviews they will face in the future, he said.

"They're often interviewing for jobs where they can't get any advice," Rhoton said. "[With AI] they've got a partner that's not going to judge them and they can go into that next meeting confident and ready to contribute."

The use of copilots and other AI tools has been a boon for HopeWorks clients, enabling them to quickly learn new coding skills and see completed examples in a matter of days over months, he said.

"AI is the best thing to happen to our young adults for job prospects," Rhoton said. "Back in the day, they were well-trained, but they were slow since they were new and inexperienced. What we're seeing is AI is not taking anyone's job, but they're able to do more in partnership [with AI]."

Tim McCarthy is a news writer for Informa TechTarget covering cloud and data storage.