On Tuesday Eastern Time, led by Meta and IBM, more than 50 companies, organizations, and academic institutions worldwide jointly created an artificial intelligence industry organization called the AI Alliance.
The members of the Artificial Intelligence Alliance include companies such as AMD, Intel, Oracle, Stability AI, SoftBank, Sony, Dell, as well as academic institutions such as Cornell University, University of Tokyo, and the National Science Foundation of the United States, but do not include ChatGPT development company OpenAI.
As OpenAI takes the lead in the field of artificial intelligence, companies such as Meta hope to form alliances to promote open-source AI work, establish industry security benchmarks for AI, share technology, and reduce the risk of OpenAI dominating.
Gathering of Heroes to Challenge OpenAI?
Since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT at the end of last year, ChatGPT has become an inevitable topic when people talk about artificial intelligence. OpenAI is undoubtedly at the forefront of the industry in the field of artificial intelligence. However, the AI models developed by OpenAI are not open and are mainly managed by OpenAI, which requires other companies to pay for their use.
And this is precisely why IBM and Meta want to form an AI alliance - they seek to create an open-source artificial intelligence development model to build a more diverse AI ecosystem.
For example, if OpenAI is compared to Apple in the era of artificial intelligence, then what companies like Meta want to do is to create an Android in the artificial age.
Dar í o Gil, Senior Vice President and Head of Research at IBM, stated that since August this year, IBM has been collaborating with Meta to bring together organizations that have not received as much attention as OpenAI.
"To be frank, we were a bit dissatisfied with last year's overall debate and discussion on artificial intelligence," Gill said. "We don't think it reflects the diversity of ecosystems. To make the era of artificial intelligence possible, ecosystem diversity is necessary."
"We believe that the development of artificial intelligence is open, and more people can benefit from it and develop innovative products," said Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta, in a statement
Supporters of these open-source artificial intelligence technologies believe that forming alliances can more effectively cultivate highly complex open-source artificial intelligence systems. In the past few months, Meta has been releasing open-source versions of its large language models, providing the foundation for AI chatbots.
The AI Alliance stated in a statement that they will focus on responsible development of AI technology, including security and information security tools, gather resources to support "open innovation and open science," expand the number of open-source AI models, develop new hardware and collaborate with academic researchers, and ultimately establish governance and technical oversight committees.
Need to build diversity in ecosystems
Since the high-level battle of OpenAI at the end of November this year, many companies have realized the risks brought by a single artificial intelligence supplier. Many companies are exploring artificial intelligence systems other than ChatGPT as viable alternatives.
IBM's Gil said that the timing of the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence Alliance highlights this information. He stated that forming an artificial intelligence alliance and developing open-source artificial intelligence may be a more flexible path for the development of artificial intelligence, as there is no specific institution that can undermine the success of open engines.
"If you think that the future of artificial intelligence will be determined by two, three, or five institutions, then you are wrong," IBM's Gil said. "I hope it can make people more clear and confident that an open and innovative world is a world worth betting on."
Ritu Jyoti, Vice President of Global Artificial Intelligence Group at research firm IDC, commented that the promotion of AI alliances may be attractive for companies looking for more partners. But "it will depend entirely on how well they execute."
According to IDC's forecast, global companies will spend nearly $16 billion on generative artificial intelligence solutions alone this year, and this expenditure will soar to $143 billion by 2027. IDC stated that from 2023 to 2027, the compound annual growth rate of generative artificial intelligence will be nearly 13 times that of global IT spending.