Meta and IBM announced the creation of the AI Alliance. The goal of this alliance is the development of open-source artificial intelligence. The AI Alliance includes more than 50 companies that OpenAI has eclipsed. In short, "there is nothing to hide how ChatGPT works and take money for it, everything should be open!" I personally look at this news in two ways. I'll come from afar.
How is AI developing now?
Essentially, there are two directions of development: academic and strictly corporate. By the first, I mean what is publicly available and published in the form of scientific articles. Universities, laboratories and large IT companies play a major role here. The share of the latter in this area is growing every year, since creating truly powerful AI requires large resources. That is, large IT companies can afford to create departments that "deal purely with science" and also make everything publicly available.
In a strictly corporate direction, everything here is diametrically opposed. All "secrets" are closed, and creating powerful AI is the main tool for making money (for example, CloseAI OpenAI). It is interesting that large IT companies can also be included in this category since they do not disclose all developments. Why reveal what can be a selling trick?
For me personally, as a person more closely associated with science, the main engine of progress is the academic direction. Open source has the potential to greatly advance technology. But there is one problem – modern AI requires large financial and computing resources, which not everyone can afford...
Why do I look at the AI Alliance negatively?
The AI market is a very large and popular market where you can make money right now. At the same time, creating truly powerful AI requires enormous resources that only major players have. Combining both factors, I do not believe that Meta or IBM will seriously help small companies or private individuals with GitHub for free. This all looks more (for now) like a startup incubator for a future takeover.
Why do I look at the AI Alliance positively?
The organizers of this alliance set one of their goals to develop common standards, tools and benchmarks. It will also develop ideas for the responsible creation and use of AI. In this way, the "big brothers" will still share something with others, and this can and should be used. Directly or indirectly, this will still have a positive impact on the development of technology.
To summarize: small companies, it seems to me, will need to behave more cunningly – take advantage of all the benefits that the giants give, but at the same time not allow themselves to be swallowed up.
