Singaporean bank DBS has joined forces with AWS to boost the AI and machine learning skills of thousands of staffers through a gamified learning programme that will see participants develop their own autonomous model race cars.
As it ramps up the use of AI across its businesses, DBS has decided to upskill some 3000 employees - including senior leadership - through the 'DeepRacer League', a concept that AWS has run with other firms.
Participants will take part in a series of hands-on tutorials before putting their new knowledge to use by programming the car. These machine learning models will then be uploaded onto a virtual racing environment where employees can experiment and iteratively finetune them, engaging in "friendly competition".
DeepRacer League will be run completely online powered by AWS, from classroom to racetrack, as part of DBS’ drive to ingrain digital learning behaviours among employees.
Some of the bank's staffers already have DeepRacer experience: Ray Goh, executive director of technology and operations recently emerged as global champion in an F1 ProAm event - beating Renault F1 Team driver Daniel Ricciardo.
Paul Cobban, chief data and transformation officer, DBS, says: "As a technology company that provides banking services, we are keenly aware of the need to stay ahead of the technology curve to continue exceeding our customers’ expectations.
"We have never believed in limiting digital expertise to a small team. Instead, we passionately believe in democratising technology skillsets among all employees, so that they can run alongside the company as we advance on our digital transformation together."