Mere Mortals In The World Of Artificial Intelligence?

Did you know that ChatGPT surpassed more than 1 million users in just five days of its launch?

To put things into context, Netflix took 3.5 years to cross 1 million users!

This says a lot about the penetration of artificial intelligence into our markets, heads, and hearts.

What started as an experiment is now an essential part of our routines. Move over Google, we take to ChatGPT when in doubt. LinkedIn itself has its own AI tool that helps users write neat and engaging posts.

We all have noticed how some of our connections have suddenly started communicating in crystal-clear English! Haven’t we all?

AI not only manages to mimic humans but also makes outputs more efficient. While genuinely skilled professionals will adapt and keep their jobs, mediocre workers are definitely under the threat of being replaced by machines!

Generative AI has been the talk of the town since 2022. We saw a burst of foundation models last year with open licenses, starting with Meta’s LlaMa family of LLMs (large language models). This was soon followed by Falcon, StableLM, LlaMa 2, and Mistral. Thanks to the datasets developed by open-source communities, open models can now perform exceptionally well in the realm of AI and machine learning.

As the dominance of AI increases, we can expect key developments in the areas of data pipelines, training techniques, governance, and middleware. This will only make generative AI more sustainable trustworthy, and accessible to all.

Let us have a look at a few modern AI trends we mere mortals can expect to see and get used to before it is too late:

Multimodal AI

When the world was introduced to mainstream generative AI in the form of ChatGPT in 2022, it was a simple text-to-text tool. You entered text and received text as an output. However, multimodal AI takes this a step further.

Such a model allows multiple input types in the form of text, images, sounds, and more to make the user experience even more dynamic. This allows AI tools to mimic human behavior even better. Mark Chen, the head of frontiers research at OpenAI has said, “The interfaces of the world are multimodal. We want our models to see what we see and hear what we hear, and we want them to also generate content that appeals to more than one of our senses.”

With the new ChatGPT version supporting voice and image commands, it is clear that we are moving in the right direction in terms of implementing multimodal AI.

Agentic AI

Agentic AI makes use of dedicated AI agents whose job goes beyond simply reacting to the commands given to them. These agents act independently by understanding the environment, setting specific goals, and achieving specific objectives without human interference.

Such AI agents are already used for environmental monitoring. Here, an agent will be programmed to collect data, analyze it, and initiate actions to prevent environmental hazards like forest fires. Finance and wealth management companies can also use such AI agents to manage the investment portfolios of their clients.

Open-source AI

It is too expensive and cumbersome for developers to build large language models and generative AI systems from scratch. However, an open-source model allows the same developers to build on top of an existing body of work. This reduces costs and expands the reach of AI.

Now that AI has penetrated all operational scales, industries, and geographical locations, open-source solutions will only get more popular in the years to come. As the AI dominance keeps increasing, developer engagement with this technology has spiked over the last couple of years. Open-source AI gives all developers and organizations wanting to make the most of this new technology new avenues to explore.

Let us hope something good (and not evil) comes out of this newfound freedom!

Retrieval-augmented Generation

Traditional generative AI models often led to hallucinations. In this context, hallucinations refer to incorrect responses generated for genuine queries. This limited the application of generative AI at an enterprise level.

Retrieval-augmented generation models reduce such hallucinations by combining text generation with information retrieval. Here, the AI tool acts as a generative software and a search engine, making the responses more genuine and accurate. It is like asking a question to someone who not only answers you but also makes a quick Google search to confirm their claims.

In this setup, large language models are not required to store all the information to generate responses from. They can scan external sources for correct information, have their spin on it, and provide wholesome answers to the users. This acts as a gateway for generative AI into enterprise applications.

Customized Generative AI Models For Businesses

While general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney are already popular for users of all kinds, the need for customized generative AI models has increased among business enterprises. Here, businesses can opt for smaller and more personal AI models that are limited to the professionals working in a specific company.

While it is possible to build a new AI model from scratch, it is an expensive and resource-heavy task. As a solution, companies can build a customized generative AI model by modifying existing models. They can tweak an existing AI model’s architecture or fine-tune a domain-specific data set. Such custom-made AI models help organizations leverage AI without spending a fortune.

Where Do We Humans Stand?

Artificial intelligence is evolving at an astonishing rate and it will not slow down any time soon. So, are we humans at a disadvantage?

Not really.

I still believe that we are smarter than the smarted AI model in the world. However, we need to adapt, upskill, and use the recent AI trends to our advantage. Machines may or may not take over the world; people riding the ongoing wave definitely will!

If you want to thrive in an intense technological environment that can change at the drop of a hat, the only way forward is to embrace this new force of nature called AI!