David Cronshaw

Excellent discussion with Ali Ghodsi, CEO and cofounder of Databricks, and Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz a16z. This conversation was part of the a16z AI Revolution series.

Their discussion covers the data wars happening inside and outside of corporate enterprises and how they could impact the evolution of Large Language Models – LLMs.

Key takeaways:

Challenges for Enterprises Adopting AI:
– Enterprises move slowly, making it difficult to adopt AI quickly.
– Heightened concern about data privacy and security within enterprises.
– Enterprises are realizing the value of their data and are reluctant to share it.
– There is internal conflict within enterprises about who owns generative AI, leading to delays in adoption.

Generative AI and Data:
– GenAI can be valuable for enterprises with specific use-cases.
– Enterprises are interested in owning the IP and building models themselves.
– Specialized models can be more efficient and accurate for specific tasks compared to larger models.

Large Models and Fine-tuning:
– Large models can be more intelligent if scaled properly.
– The industry is exploring ways to fine-tune large models for specific tasks without modifying the whole model.
– Focus on developing techniques to add specialized capabilities to large models efficiently.

Open Source and Model Specialization:
– Debate about the role of open source in the development of large models.
– Some large model providers are advocating against open source.
– Likely to be a lot of specialization in models, with different models dominating different use cases.

Future of AI:
– Future will see the development of various specialized AI applications.
– The focus on who builds the largest model is considered to be overemphasized.
– There is value in building specialized AI solutions for specific industries and use cases.

Key comment from Ali Ghodsi that is a really good analogy as to where we are now with AI:

“Ali Ghodsi (12:07)
Right now, it’s a little bit like 2000, and the internet is about to take over everything, and everybody’s super excited. There’s this one company called Cisco. They build routers. Obviously, that’s the biggest thing. And the most important thing is whoever can build the best routers is going to dominate all of internet forever. The future of mankind is going to be determined by who builds the best routers. This company, Cisco, is the best one by far. Cisco in 2000, was worth half a trillion dollars at its peak, and people were talking about it’s going to be a trillion-dollar company who’s worth more than Microsoft. It’s a little bit like right now like that. Who has the largest LLM? Obviously, whoever can build the largest one that can train it the most – will own all of AI and all of future of humanity. But just like the Net, someone will show up later and think about Uber rides and cab driving, and someone else showed up and thought about connecting with friends.”
#AI#GenerativeAI