AI company Beyond Limits today said it will collaborate with Nvidia on joint strategies leveraging Nvidia technical support and GPU-optimized AI software, including containers, models and application frameworks from the Nvidia NGC catalog, to improve Beyond Limits’ software development cycle.
“AI has the potential to make a major impact on problems facing the heart of the global energy business, but the technology requires high levels of computing power to operate on the level and scale required by many of today’s global producers,” said AJ Abdallat, CEO of Beyond Limits. “That’s why we’re so excited to collaborate with Nvidia, a leading provider of AI computing platforms. With Nvidia technology support and expertise, Beyond Limits is better positioned to offer faster, more intelligent and efficient AI-based solutions for maximizing energy production and profitability.”
Beyond Limits cited a major challenge facing the upstream oil and gas sector: resource requirement for optimizing well deployments, especially when data on a region’s geological properties is highly uncertain. To address this problem, Beyond Limits said it developed a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework trained using Nvidia A100 Tensor Core GPUs, capable of running 167,000 complex scenario simulations in 36 hours. “Following initial tests, the DRL framework yielded a 208 percent increase in NPV value by predicting and recommending well placements, based on the number of actions explored and the expected financial return from reservoir production over time,” the company said.
“The NVIDIA A100 offers the performance and reliability required to meet the demands of the modern day energy sector,” said Marc Spieler, Global Energy Director at Nvidia. “The ability to process hundreds of thousands of AI simulations in real-time provides the insight required for Beyond Limits to develop scalable applications that advance energy technologies.”
The company said its Cognitive AI is designed to apply “human-like reasoning to solve problems, combining encoded human knowledge with machine learning techniques and allowing systems to adapt and continue to operate even when data is in short supply or uncertain.”
Beyond Limits, which leverages a technology portfolio developed at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA space missions, was recently included by CB Insights on its 2020 list of Top AI 100 most innovative artificial intelligence startups and by Frost & Sullivan for their North American Technology Innovation Award. In September, the company announced a Series C venture round of $113 million.
