Paul Brook at the Big Data Belfast conference. Image: Dell Technologies
On the anniversary of the Artemis I launch, Paul Brook explains the amount of data involved in that launch and recent transformations in the AI sector.
Paul Brook is the director for data analytics and AI in the EMEA region for Dell Technologies, looking at emerging technologies for the company.
Brook first joined Dell in 2007 as a consultant specialising in public sector supercomputers and high-performance computing. He has held various management positions within the company and currently leads a team of 20 specialists, helping clients explore technology options such as AI and edge computing.
One area Brook focuses on for Dell’s clients is big data – a term to describe the “large, hard-to-manage volumes of data” that is becoming a more prominent issue as the availability of data grows.
Supporting the space sector with big data
Brook said big data is playing a “critical role” in advancing space exploration due to the ever-growing quantity of data that needs to be monitored and analysed.
One client that Dell works with to harness the power of big data is NASA. Brook said that Dell provides infrastructure to support the space agency and worked with NASA to help the Artemis I launch last year.
To complete the mission, NASA needed to interpret more than 185,000 critical data points and telemetry, which was helped by Dell’s “computational muscle”.
“By using Dell Precision workstations, the NASA team was able to effectively process and analyse these insights in real time and complete a successful mission,” Brook said. “As data expands, we’re constantly developing new tools that enable us to collect, process and analyse data at the speed needed to gain the most value from it.”
Brook said Dell will also work with NASA on the Artemis II mission, which is the agency’s first moon mission containing astronauts in around 50 years. This launch is currently scheduled for November 2024.
The democratisation of AI
Brook said that the growing amount and availability of data is being fuelled by advances in technologies such as AI, edge computing and the internet of things (IoT).
“These technologies have significant potential to revolutionise a wide range of industries from manufacturing to healthcare and can provide powerful productivity gains for businesses of all sizes,” Brooke said.
In 2018, Brook published a book called The Life of AI, which analysed the impact this technology has had on the digital age. Brook has a positive view of the technology overall and believes it will benefit society and those who use it “responsibly”.
The AI sector has transformed rapidly since this book, with the recent surge in generative AI. Brook noted that it “may be time to write a new edition” due to the speed of development this technology is undergoing.
“Over the past five years, generative AI is one of the most striking innovations in the technology [and] can become the intelligence and action that fuels new business opportunities,” Brook said. “While early AI focused mostly on analysing and processing data to predict an outcome, generative AI taps into existing data to generate new content.
“It also has had the effect of democratising access to AI since the user interface is human language, not computer science.”
Brook believes that AI is key to unlocking value within data and is becoming “one of the most important tools for businesses of all sizes” as a result.
“While consumer-grade AI has captured the imagination of everyone within the past year, the real opportunity is making it enterprise-ready and leveraging the power of data to help business to innovate and grow,” Brook said. “At Dell, we’ve been exploring and experimenting with AI for several years with ecosystem partners like Intel and Nvidia to develop generative AI capabilities.”
Brook believes the pace of the AI sector will continue to accelerate, but said that businesses will need to look “beyond just AI” and harness the potential of various emerging technologies – such as edge computing – to reap benefits. He also highlighted the importance of growing this sector sustainably.
“As we look to the future, there is a need to harness AI while protecting the environment, minimising emissions and prioritising renewable energy sources,” Brook said.
“AI represents the most intensive and demanding technology we’ve ever seen, and we must invest as much in making it sustainable as [we invest in] creating AI itself.”
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