The Stability AI Event at the Embarcadero in San Francisco, April 18-23, 2010, left by David Song and Jasper Keane
Generative Artificial Intelligence enthusiasts are predicting the technology will take root in all kinds of industries and do more than just spit out images or sentences. David Song is a senior at the University who tracks the boom and has gathered a list of more than 100 generative artificial intelligence companies. They are working on various applications, which include music, game development, writing assistants, customer service, coding aids, video editing tech and assistant that manage online communities. The company has invested in a potentially lucrative application if it can work reliably.
Social media has lately been overrun by stunning and strange images generated by AI, thanks to advances by Hugging Face and others. Related machine learning technology allows algorithms to generate reams of surprisingly coherent text on a given subject. A few of what are now referred to as generative artificial intelligence companies have collectively raised hundreds of millions of dollars, spurring a hunt for a new generation of artificial intelligence unicorns.
Stability AI, which offers tools for generating images with few restrictions, held a party of its own in San Francisco last week. It received $101 million in new funding, making the company worth $1 billion. The gathering attracted tech celebrities including Google cofounder Sergey Brin.
Song works with Everyprompt, a startup that makes it easier for companies to use text generation. Like many contributing to the buzz, he says testing generative AI tools that make images, text, or code has left him with a sense of wonder at the possibilities. “It’s been a long time since I used a website or technology that felt immensely helpful or magical,” he says. “Using generative AI makes me feel like I’m using magic.”
Dave felt that no one would show up to his conference. It was all planned sort of last-minute, and the event was somehow scheduled for Valentine’s Day. Surely people would rather be with their loved ones than in a conference hall along San Francisco’s Embarcadero, even if the views of the bay just out the windows were jaw-slackening.
Jasper had an event called “Genai” that sold out. When the lanyard crowd came over from the coffee bar to the stage this past Tuesday, it was standing room only. Pink and purple lighting on the walls was just as subtle as a New Jersey wedding banquet.
From Ask Jeeves for Generative AI to Big Tech: How to Keep Your Roblox Safe and Calm During the Tech Era
OpenAI introduced a search box late last year. AI got a UI. And suddenly, we understood. This was Ask Jeeves for the modern era. A new kind of search is able to interpret our dumb questions and give smart answers. Microsoft made a second investment in Openai, and launched a chatbot within Bing. GOOGLE demoed its version of a search tool that used chatbot technology. Smaller companies like Jasper, which sells its generative AI tools to business users, are now faced with tech existentialism. There’s the sunny side of all that attention, and the shadow of Big Tech looming over you.
Generative AI’s full impact on game creation remains murky — GamesIndustry.biz has a great piece asking developers what they think about it — and while it seems like generative AI could offer some benefits, there are worries about how it could eliminate jobs. Roblox’s support for generative AI could be a big moment for the tech, but since its tools aren’t live yet, we’ll have to wait and see just how useful they’ll be.
You can see how they will work in a short video at the top of this post. In one example, somebody types in different descriptions of materials for a car, and those patterns are applied right away. In others, you can see how autocompleting code might work for things like turning on the car’s lights and making it rain in the game’s world.
The company is already thinking about moderation, which is particularly important given Roblox’s popularity with kids. In all cases, Roblox has to be kept safe and civil. “This means we need to build a fast and scalable moderation flow for all types of creation.”
Replit: Write and Answer Questions about Software Development and a General Purpose Language with Artificial Intelligence. A reply to a developer’s comment on Codex
The code generator Codex has been adapted to power a general purpose language called GPT, thanks to a deal between Microsoft and OpenAI. Microsoft added more data to the Codex from a popular software development platform, and made it available through its Visual Studio programming application.
In response to a developer’s comment or when the user begins typing, the programming environment uses artificial intelligence to write code. The startup Replit just launched an interface that will write code and answer programming questions.