Does anyone know the quickest way to become an AI researcher? We aren't particularly interested in helping create Skynet--or more likely training computers to display more relevant ads--but we wouldn't say no to the limited edition Titan V GPUs that Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang gave away at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition conference in Salt Lake City. (Even though we know the legit AI researchers would put 'em to better use.)
The new Titan V CEO Edition is based on the Volta platform and features the Tensor Cores that Nvidia made specifically for AI research. You can probably guess how it got the CEO Edition moniker, but in case it isn't obvious, it's because Huang signed each of the GPUs he gave away at the Utah conference. But a signature is the only thing separating the Titan V CEO Edition from its unsigned counterparts--it boasts other changes as well.
The most obvious difference between the Titan V CEO Edition and the plain-ol' Titan V is that this new edition features 32GB of memory; its predecessor has 12GB. AnandTech learned that Nvidia also included with the new unit 128 render output units (ROPs) compared to the Titan V's 96, improved the memory bus width to 4,096 bits (from 3,072), and increased tensor performance to 125 TFLOPS from 110 TFLOPS.
Nvidia said it gave away 20 of the Titan V CEO Edition GPUs at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition conference. The company hasn't officially announced the Titan V CEO Edition for the retail market, but we also doubt it would make 20 units of a new Titan V just so Huang could give them away during an AI conference. We suspect the company will reveal a similarly specced product sometime in the future.
For now, though, it seems like Huang merely wanted to woo the researchers at this conference. He also attempted to win over the crowd with words:
“There’s all kinds of research being done here. As someone who benefits from your work, as a person who is going to enjoy the incredible research you guys do — solving some of the world’s grand challenges — and to be able to witness artificial intelligence happen in my lifetime, I want to thank all of you guys for that,” Huang said. “You guys bring me so much joy.”
You know what would bring us joy? Not being told at Computex that Nvidia's next-generation gaming GPUs would arrive "a long time from now." So if you'll excuse us, we're going to see if any of those sites that let you become an ordained minister over the Internet offer similar credentials in the AI field. Those pretty games shown off at E3 aren't going to run themselves. And we're reluctantly OK with summoning Skynet if it means we can play Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K and high refresh rates. Hopefully something like a "Titan V Regular Gamer Edition" is also in the works.
