Artificial Intelligence Takeover

AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools aren’t new, per se, but big tech’s latest ventures into machine learning are bringing them to the forefront. AI may very well soon dominate all aspects of our lives, from driving cars to grocery shopping. In fact, many experts believe that AI will take over most manual labor, like manufacturing and warehousing, within the next 10 years. As a result, companies are sprinting to hire experts who can help develop these technologies, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with AI’s ever-evolving capabilities.

The competition to release new AI tools that dominate the market is stiff. Big tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Meta are racing to come out with the latest and greatest advancements. The benefit of this is that we may see helpful tools sooner rather than later and that those tools will need to be excellent to edge out the competition. The drawback, however, is  

The Great AI Race 

The most notable AI advancements as of late are the language models being developed by multiple tech giants.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms can understand and analyze human language more accurately than ever before and can generate human-like text and perform a wide range of natural language tasks such as translation, summarization, and question answering. And almost every major tech company has launched or is launching its own version.

OpenAI, which has garnered millions in investment from Microsoft, recently released the latest version of its powerful NLP tool, ChatGPT, “GPT-4.” According to the team, the new technology exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks. For instance, it passed a simulated bar exam with a score in the top 10%. 

This tool, or “supercomputer” accepts text and image inputs from the user to generate outputs. It can synthesize text, research topics, answer questions, create jokes, and much, much more. 

While ChatGPT has garnered huge amounts of attention and users, Google recently launched its own conversational AI tool, Bard. Similar to ChatGPT, it draws on information from the web to provide responses. Also similar to other NLP tools such as this, Bard is not immune to factual mistakes or creating false information, an issue that makes these tools tricky and somewhat untrustworthy. 

While OpenAI/Microsoft and Google are battling it out, they aren’t the only companies in this space. Meta has its own new AI language generator, called LLaMA. Rather than a conversational tool like ChatGPT or Bard, however, Meta launched LLaMA as a research tool to be used by groups like universities, NGOs, and industry labs for the greater purpose of parsing out false information that other language models can perpetuate. 

What’s Next?

ChatGPT, Bard, and LLaMA are just a few of the many, many ventures into AI territory by tech companies both big and small. 

As it relates to developing new AI technologies, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said "We'll pursue this work boldly, but with a deep sense of responsibility.”

It will be interesting to see where the AI landscape heads in 2023 and beyond as these companies continue to find ways of making computers better understand human language. Additionally, ethical considerations for AI usage will come into sharper focus as these technology providers strive to ensure that their products are used safely and responsibly. Although this is an exciting new technology, some are concerned about its astronomical growth recently. Some top tech leaders, such as Elon Musk have called for a six-month pause in the development of AI. This stems from fears that the ethical and moral effects of this fledgling technology on society need to be fully understood before it becomes too essential.
Companies with capable labor are seeking major investor dollars to realize their dreams. For privately held companies and start-ups, seeking those with investor accreditation may make the most sense. While it can be difficult to find accredited investors, VerifyInvestor.com can provide helpful resources to verify investors quickly and streamline the capital-raising process. This process cannot be automated by AI as only specific professionals are permitted to conduct third-party reviews of accredited investor status.