How Morningstar is using machine-learning race cars from Amazon to train employees

Pop into Morningstar's Chicago headquarters and you might see something unexpected: A group of employees cheering on what appears to be a remote-controlled toy car racing around a track. Morningstar, one of the world's biggest investment-research companies, is turning to machine-learning-guided cars to learn about ways to better pull and analyze data. Amazon Web Services has been using the DeepRacer cars to introduce clients on its public-cloud services to machine-learning technology. Wall Street firms, meanwhile, are talking more about wading into the public cloud and uses for artificial intelligence. James Rhodes, Morningstar's chief technology officer, said he was introduced to the AWS DeepRacer when employees asked if they could spend their training stipends on the cars.