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☆ A new generative AI model could compete with rivals like OpenAI. Say hello to Databricks' DBRX.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Lloyd Lee | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Databricks, a cloud-based data software company, launched a new AI model on Wednesday — and the company says it's faster, cheaper, and more efficient than its larger competitors. The model, called DBRX, comes at a time of fierce competition in the generative AI field. DBRX, available as open source, is the culmination of the company's $1.3 billion purchase of AI startup MosaicML last July, as many of its staffers helped build DBRX. Also, the entire DBRX model has 132 billion parameters, the company said. Ghodsi told BI that a team at Databricks was responsible for filtering copyrighted material from the data used to train DBRX.

Persons: —, Ali Ghodsi, Elon Musk's, Databricks, Ghodsi, Patrick Wendell, Wendell, Naveen Rao Organizations: Service, Business, Google, Microsoft Locations: San Francisco ., Databricks

☆ Generative AI needs tools to avoid copyright infringement, Databricks' Naveen Rao says — or more companies could meet Napster's fate
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-10 | by ( Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Naveen Rao is VP of Generative AI at Databricks and co-founder of LLM-training platform MosaicML. Rao says copyright infringement could prevent companies from successfully monetizing AI. Rao, who oversees generative AI strategy for Databricks after it bought his startup MosaicML for $1.3 billion, likens it to the issue that crushed Napster, the 2000s-era music-sharing platform. "We build tools that enable companies to differentiate their AI from everyone else's and leverage their data uniquely," Rao told Insider. The more people building generative AI technology the better, Rao says.

Persons: Naveen Rao, Rao, —, ChatGPT, Jodi Picoult, George R.R, Martin, OpenAI, he's Organizations: Service, Napster, Apple, iTunes, Thrones, Metallica, Qualcomm, Intel

☆ Cerebral Valley, the AI conference that spawned a $1.3 billion deal, is coming back to San Francisco this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Cerebral Valley, an AI conference run by Eric Newcomer's eponymous publication, just announced its second gathering of 2023. CVAI2 (Cerebral Valley AI Summit version 2.0) will take place on November 15 at the SFJAZZ Center in Hayes Valley, San Francisco. The neighborhood is nicknamed Cerebral Valley these days, due to the plethora of AI startups that have sprouted there. Ali Ghodsi, CEO of Databricks, and Naveen Rao, CEO of MosaicML, met for the first time at the initial Cerebral Valley AI Summit. That's the biggest generative AI startup deal so far, by my counting.

Persons: Vinod Khosla, Reid Hoffman, Adam D'Angelo, Eric Newcomer's, Mustafa Suleyman, Ali Ghodsi, Kanjun Qiu, Chris Lattner, May Habib, Naveen Rao, Jason Warner, Max Child, James Wilsterman, Amjad Masad, Clem Delangue, Emad, Daniela Amodei, Cristobal Valenzuela, Shane Orlick, MosaicML, it's Organizations: SFJAZZ, Service, Industry Locations: Hayes Valley, San Francisco, Wall, Silicon, Jasper

☆ Can AI save commercial real estate in San Francisco?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

In an aerial view, cars drive by the San Francisco skyline as they cross the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on October 27, 2022 in San Francisco, California. Alexander Quinn, senior director of research at commercial real estate company JLL, said his firm sees bright spots in San Francisco’s commercial real estate market as AI companies drive office leasing demand. A shopper exits the Westfield San Francisco Centre shopping mall in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. The US Census Bureau reports an estimated 35% of employees in San Francisco and San Jose continue to work from home. “I think the crash is coming, and it hasn’t happened yet,” he added, referring to commercial real estate prices.

Persons: Naveen Rao, CBRE, Justin Sullivan, it’s, ” Rao, San, Alexander Quinn, JLL, ” Quinn, Rao, OpenAI, ”, “ There’s, MosaicML, Quinn, “, Francisco’s, David Paul Morris, Henrique Dubugras, ” Michael Tannenbaum, Tannenbaum, Hans Hansson Organizations: CNN, San, Westfield, San Francisco Centre, Westfield San Francisco, Bloomberg, Getty, London, US, “ Locations: San Francisco, Southern California, Francisco, Oakland, San Francisco , California, ”, “ San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, city’s, San Francisco’s Union, Coresight, Westfield San Francisco Centre, California, Francisco’s, San Jose, decamping, United States

☆ MosaicML launches new service in bid to challenge OpenAI on price
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 3 (Reuters) - MosaicML, an artificial intelligence startup founded by former Intel Corp (INTC.O) executives and academic researchers, released on Wednesday two new products aimed at beating industry giants such as OpenAI on price. The company makes money selling the tools to firms that want to develop their own customized AI systems. But on Wednesday, MosaicML announced several new services that will compete more directly with companies like OpenAI or Anthropic, which build AI systems and then charge for access to them. MosaicML is offering those services at a cost it says is as much as 15 times lower than rival services. They have assurances that the model that's built on the private data is owned by them," Rao said.

But Nvidia has created variants of its chips for the Chinese market that are slowed down to meet U.S. rules. Even the slowed Nvidia chips represent an improvement for Chinese firms. The back-and-forth between government and industry exposes the U.S. challenge of slowing China's progress in high tech without hurting U.S. companies. Chip industry sources said that was an effective action. Some in the AI industry believe that is still plenty of speed.

☆ OpenAI has become synonymous with the generative AI boom, but it has a weakness that its competitors are already starting to exploit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But while OpenAI became synonymous with AI, its competition hasn't sat still. Other AI model makers see a growing opportunity in the concerns around OpenAI, and want to pounce on the opportunity. Amazon, not one to miss a promotional activity, then directed its programmers to use its own AI model called CodeWhisperer. OpenAI's determination to dominate the field meant it created a more general AI model that others could add on. However, it also leaves an opening in the market for more specific AI models that organizations in sensitive industries will flock to.

Executives across the technology sector are talking about how to operate AI like ChatGPT while accounting for the high expense. What makes this form of AI pricier than conventional search is the computing power involved. Still, footing the bill is one of two main reasons why search and social media giants with billions of users have not rolled out an AI chatbot overnight, said Paul Daugherty, Accenture's chief technology officer. Technology experts also said a workaround is applying smaller AI models to simpler tasks, which Alphabet is exploring. The company said this month a "smaller model" version of its massive LaMDA AI technology will power its chatbot Bard, requiring "significantly less computing power, enabling us to scale to more users."

☆ AI is expensive. A search on Google's chatbot Bard costs the company 10 times more than a regular one, which could amount to several billion dollars.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Alphabet chairman John Hennessy said an AI chatbot search costs 10 times more than a regular one, per Reuters. Analysts expect Google to incur billions in extra AI costs over the next several years. Analysts say the extra costs can amount to billions of dollars over the span of years, Reuters reported. The projected costs of AI search varies. To reduce its AI-related costs, Google said it will run its chatbot with a "smaller version" of its LaMDA AI model, per Reuters.

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