NTT brings high-end edge AI to drones, intros AI ethics group
AI chip for edge devices – NTT enables real-time 4K video processing in drones at altitudes up to 150 meters, five times higher than conventional systems, while consuming under 20 watts of power.
2025 launch, expansion – new large-scale integration (LSI) tech from NTT will support apps from drone-based infrastructure inspections to photonics-based AI infrastructure deployments.
New AI ethics group – new NTT group will collaborate with Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford to study “black-box” nature of AI, combining physics, neuroscience, and psychology to define AI ethics and trust.
NTT Corporation has developed a ‘world-first’ AI chip technology to support high-power AI inferencing in low-power edge devices. Its initial use case is to boost edge computing in drone-mounted cameras for live beyond visual line-of-site (BVLOS) inspections. Standard AI video technology, where the compute engine is on the ground, limits the ‘real-time’ range of drone-based video monitoring to about 30 metres; NTT reckons it can extend this to an altitude of 150 metres, expanding the application and value of industrial drones in the process.