The United States Postal Service (USPS) has reportedly taken to using artificial intelligence technologies to facilitate faster and more efficient package sorting and tracing. The federal service makes use of an AI program powered by Nvidia, reports ZD Net.
The company’s use of artificial intelligence technologies comes as the postal service intends to scale up its operation and make for easier and faster sorting when it comes to packages.
According to EE Times, the U.S. Postal Service handles around 40% of the world’s total mail as well as 7.3 billion packages every single year. Meanwhile, ZD Net states that this entails that the service handles around 20 million packages every day, making it difficult to sort through packages when something goes wrong or gets lost.
Given the extent of its reach, the postal service will be using artificial intelligence tools care of Nvidia. These tools will be available across its 195 processing centers and sites across the United States, revealed Nextgov.
This initiative falls under the Edge Computer Infrastructure Program (ECIP), in which EE Times reports can scan, track, and deliver approximately 231 packages per second. The ECIP was done in partnership with Accenture Federal Services as well as Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
To move the project along, Nvidia has reportedly provided USPS with its EGX platform which makes use of four V100 GPUs, all of which are running on HPE servers. These HPE servers are particularly trained to use algorithms designed for package-sorting services, notes EE Times.
The realization of the commitment comes after USPS decided to switch to Nvidia-powered GPUs as it ventures into AI. ZD Net reveals that the company now handles 13 EGX systems in two data centers, all of which are tasked to train AI/ML models.
With the algorithms in place, the postal service is expected to double down not only in tracking lost packages, but also in identifying the size, weight, and postage requirements for a particular parcel.
As of writing, EE Times states that the ECIP platform handles 20 terabytes of image data every single day, with the data coming from over 1,000 processing machines across the United States.
In a statement, vice president of Nvidia’s federal government business Anthony Robbins said, “There are not many enterprise-wide AI/ML projects that have been deployed at this scale across the whole enterprise, especially not in the case of government.”
“The work that’s occurring by building an enterprise-wide program at the US Postal Service can be a motivator for the US federal government and, frankly, commercial businesses and enterprises around the globe,” continued Robbins.
