Exploring the Potential:
Discussing the impact and future of Generative Artificial Intelligence
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I am sure that we have all heard some of the buzz around the large language models (LLM) by now. What exactly do these advancements mean for the future of our technology, though?
Some speculate that jobs will be threatened by the advancement of generative AI, and believe that it is not in our best interest moving forward. Others are thrilled and inspired by the winds of change, and are helping to propel towards uncharted territory in the tech world.
Blast Off - Birth of generative AI
While it has been studied since around 2014, generative AI really became prevalent in the tech community around late 2022. By early 2023, a lot of people had heard about it, and even started using models like Chat-GPT to explore the capabilities of a LLM.
Speaking of, OpenAI launched Chat-GPT November 30, 2022. Since then, there have been major improvements built into the LLMs, specifically how much data they use to generate a response.
Rivaling companies have also started creating their own versions of the LLMs within their products, giving users a wider range of options to choose from.
Microsoft (Bing): Implemented their own version of the LLM licensed through OpenAI, and has seen a reported 16% increase in traffic since. See reference
Google (Bard): Google hopped onto the generative AI bandwagon as well, creating their own version, Bard. Google's Bard works off of different data sets than OpenAI's Chat-GPT and has been listed as a great alternative
Of course, there are many other companies that have created their own adaptations, which you can view here.
Generative AI Ethics
With new technology comes the responsibility of making sure that we are creating/using it ethically.
With new generative AI models like Chat-GPT becoming ever present, it is becoming easier to handle some tasks. For example, I could have Chat-GPT write this whole blog post for me if I wanted to. For me, that defeats the whole purpose of posting my blogs; for others, it may be a valid tool to assist in the writing process.
The inherent danger comes when the AI is utilizing data that it is getting from all over, and spitting it back out to the user, who then is presenting the data as their own. In the image above, you can see I ask Chat-GPT for a sub heading to my blog post. Whenever I use something like that from Chat-GPT, I like to use it as a baseline suggestion, and alter it to my own. Read the conversation between Chat-GPT and myself, and you can understand some of the dangers that lie there.
There have been lawsuits already against big companies (who's names I will not reveal) for copyright infringement as the AI is trained on information that is from all over, some even copyrighted.
Personally, I have used Chat-GPT to help me out with my learning journey as it can be a great tool. Chat-GPT can easily help you identify that pesky little spelling error that has been holding you up for hours. It can also, however, become a crutch. Is it ethically correct to call yourself a coder when you can only rely on tools like Chat-GPT?
While tools will continue to be built upon, innovated, and invented, it is important to keep in mind that they are just that: tools. We, as users, need to leverage tools ethically and responsibly.
Job Security - Are we in danger of losing jobs?
The job market in the tech world is like a revolving door. Each day, there may be a job title that did not previously exist. On the other hand, there are going to be jobs that are no longer needed as technology evolves.
I believe this to be the case with generative AI. No doubt, I believe that some jobs will become unnecessary, as they will be able to be done by AI or bots in the future (this has already started years back with AI machines in factories). With that being said, I also believe that this will create more jobs than it will destroy.
With so many companies competing to release the next cutting-edge AI tech, more and more positions will be needed to fill these roles. There will always need to be people updating/innovating on the technology that they are creating, which is why I believe that jobs are safe.
In tech, I do think it is a good idea to stay current with the times. While I did say I believe that jobs are safe, I meant that as in the grand scheme of things. Your job, however may be affected down the road. Stay up to date on updates and releases, and don't get left behind in yesterday's world.
Vercel AI SDK
Be sure to check out Vercel's documentation on their AI SDK here
While several companies have been achieving great feats with AI, I wanted to specifically touch on Vercel's latest updates in AI.
Vercel has released an open sourced library for their AI SDK for developers. This SDK is easy to use, with just a few lines of code you are up and running with an interactive LLM on your web app. The SDK leverages API requests to the LLM of your choice. Several different templates of LLM have been implemented by Vercel, including Open AI, Hugging Face, and LangChain.
Vercel has even included React and Svelte hooks within their library to ensure a clean user experience. These hooks allow the data received from the API request to be rendered smoothly as needed to give a better user experience.
Example of useChat() hook from Vercel AI SDK docs
Naturally, being curious as I am, I attempted to implement this as a feature to my latest project. Surely enough, I was blown away by the overall simplicity of incorporating it. I will create another blog post soon explaining how I incorporated it into my project.
I am very excited to see where this technology is going to go, personally. With less than a year's time, we have already made monumental advancements; I feel the best is yet to come. I will be staying tuned to advancements and updates as they come flying out from all corners, and yes, I will be writing about them! Stay tuned.
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