The Vanguards of Innovation: Microsoft and Other Major Players
The AI domain continues to be dominated by key players, each carving out new paths for innovation. Microsoft, with its strategic partnership with OpenAI and more recently Mistral, has been at the forefront. During last year's Ignite event, Microsoft declared its ambition to spearhead Generative AI innovations, capturing the industry's attention.
A standout moment was the unveiling of the Azure Maia 100 and Cobalt 100 microchips, signaling Microsoft's serious commitment to building systems and retiring the perceived notion of focusing on software. By late February 2024, the Microsoft Research team further underscored this commitment by contributing to the publication of "The Era of 1-bit LLMs" paper, showcasing advancements in Generative AI training and inference quality and efficiency.
In the meantime, the tech giant is busy deploying its new Data & AI offerings with Fabric and Copilot. In early February, they announced the preview of Copilot for Fabric, bringing new ways to transform and analyze data, generate insights, and create visualizations. This emphasizes the extension of Copilot's Generative AI capabilities to an extensive portfolio of Microsoft products. Lastly, Azure ML Studio and Azure Open AI Studio, presently independent entities, could foreseeably be incorporated into the Microsoft Fabric suite in the future.
OpenAI's upcoming release of GPT-5, a more advanced AI model, could be a step toward achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) — AI that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge in a way that's indistinguishable from human intelligence. In just 12 months, shares of Nvidia skyrocketed close to 240%. While the GPU chipmaker remains a cornerstone in AI hardware, AMD's emerging competitive edge cannot be overlooked. Meta's continuation down the open-source path with LLaMa 3 reflects a broader industry trend toward democratizing AI technologies.
Finally, Apple remained quiet on the Generative AI front for all of 2023. However, recently, Tim Cook announced the company is “investing significantly” in Generative AI. While we are not entirely sure what the teased major announcement later this year is about, some say Apple is expected to release a localized LLM for the iPhone called AJAX. This localized Large Language Model (LLM) could be the answer to the shortage of GPU’s.
The AI Startup Ecosystem: A Flourishing Investment Landscape
Despite rising interest rates, investors poured nearly $50 billion into AI startups in 2023, showing strong confidence in the sector's growth potential. This investment momentum is expected to carry into 2024, with companies like Mistral AI and Aleph Alpha, both raising nearly $500 million last year.
Founded in 2016 by ex-Google employee Jonathan Ross, Groq has recently distinguished itself in the AI industry. Jonathan is known for designing and implementing the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), used to train Gemini. After 8 years, the company’s breakthroughs with the Language Processing Unit (LPU) chip, represents a significant achievement we hope for from startups.
While threatening regulations may refrain venture capitalists from investing further, the sustained interest highlights the perceived value and untapped potential within the Generative AI emerging technologies.
Corporate Experimentation: Embracing RAG Systems
Beyond startups, established corporations are increasingly experimenting with Generative AI tools to enhance efficiency and innovation. The most frequently reported uses of Generative AI tools primarily benefit individual contributors. The widespread adoption of enterprise solutions is still pending, largely due to their general lack of maturity. However, Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) systems seem to emerge. Just like we saw the rise of web searches in the 90s, we anticipate RAGs to proliferate within organizations soon.
What are RAGs? It is the process of generating an output, powered by an LLM, by referencing a knowledge base outside of its training data. In other words, it allows users to converse with their Intellectual Property without spending large sums of money on fine-tuning or training its own LLM. Despite the development and the operational cost associated with those systems, the return on investment is immense. To that end, we predict mass volume of RAG systems becoming a priority in 2024 budgets and beyond.
The Rise of Text-To-Video: A New Era of Content Consumption
Have you heard of Sora? So far, Text-To-Video platforms like InVideo, Pika, or HeyGen are poised to transition from novelty to mainstream. When Tyler Perry saw what Sora could do, he put his plans for an $880 million studio project on hold. The filmmaker reflected the need to shoot a scene in the middle of a Tokyo street filled with warm glowing neon and animated city signage simply became a prompt, instead of the cost associated with actors, crew, and rent. The disruption in a wide range of industries due to Generative AI has been observed. However, this might be the first time a person of high influence vocalizes their concerns and halts upcoming projects to reflect.
Text-to-video technology promises to redefine how we absorb information, learn, and entertain ourselves. The potential for interactive learning experiences that rival the engagement of streaming services illustrates the broad implications of Generative AI across sectors.
As we embrace 2024, the AI landscape is being dramatically shaped by four pivotal trends: the strategic maneuvers of major players, the surge in startup innovation, corporate experimentation despite limited budgets, and the emergence of text-to-video technologies. Together, these developments underscore the accelerating momentum of Generative AI, with Corporate Experimentation playing a key role in highlighting the practical applications and significance of these technologies.
At Improving, we specialize in harnessing this momentum through the strategic implementation of advanced AI solutions, including Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) systems. These systems represent just one facet of our expertise, enabling your organization to capitalize on the Generative AI wave. Let's collaborate to unlock the full potential of AI for your business, shaping a future where technology amplifies creativity and efficiency. Reach out to us here!
