Closing the AI Skills Gap - Sr. Director, AI Computing at NVIDI

K S Venkatraman leads engineering teams responsible for developing products that enable innovative technologies, from natural language processing and recommendation systems to self-driving cars and more. But for many years, when it came time to grow his teams, he was unable to find local talent that had the required technical skills. As a result, Venkat often had to look to universities outside of Oregon for new hires. He wanted to be part of the solution. He successfully applied to serve on the Oregon Workforce and Talent Development Board, whose members are appointed by the governor. He soon partnered with Portland Community College (PCC) President Mark Mitsui to co-chair a statewide task force focused on artificial intelligence (AI) education and training.

Now serving his second three-year term on the board and co-chairing the Technology Industry Consortium to guide Oregon’s Future Ready program, some of Venkat’s recommendations—including establishing an interdisciplinary AI program at PCC and an AI graduate program at Oregon State University—are changing the skills landscape in Oregon. Oregon Institute of Technology is also considering a new AI curriculum following his keynote address at its faculty convocation .“Technology advances so quickly that we constantly play catch up,” Venkat said. “I want to instill the importance of having a process to continuously update the curriculum while training educators and keeping policymakers informed. ”New talent needs to learn, experiment with, and adapt to AI. Generative AI represents a significant evolution in AI technology due to its ability to comprehend languages, predict sequences, and generate new content from text, speech, images, videos, and music. It is leading to breakthrough ideas, products, and services across all industries. “What we need is a cross-disciplinary AI program at the K-12 level, at community colleges, and at universities,” he said. “It's not just computer science students who need to learn and apply this knowledge.

It's everybody, because it's affecting each and every economic sector. Specifically at K-12, a foundational course in using AI tools must be a graduating requirement. Using AI models is different from developing them—one doesn’t need to be a mechanic to drive a car. And in higher education, colleges should think of computer science as a second language. ”Beyond technical expertise, he sees a critical need for development of human skills that machines can’t replicate, like collaboration, empathy, self-critique, and critical thinking. Emphasis on hands-on projects to train, fine-tune, and deploy neural networks are also important for those wanting to dive deeper into AI. It has never been more important to instill the importance of lifelong learning, sometimes even unlearning and relearning, Venkat added.“ One difference with generative AI is that with big technological advances like electricity and the industrial revolution, automation reduced the burden of manual labor,” he said. “Similarly, generative AI will make all knowledge-based work immensely productive.

That’s why it's critically important to learn how to use this technology. The gap between those that know how to use it and those that don't will widen. ”Venkat’s passion for technology is infectious. “Computing is the most important instrument of human advancement ever created,” he said. “We should harness these giant technology leaps to collaboratively solve our toughest problems around energy transition, healthcare, education, and in other economic sectors.” Thank you to A. Wordsmith for interviewing K S Venkatraman, Sr. Director, AI Computing at NVIDIA.