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Beyond Nvidia: the search for AI's next breakthrough | National ...
For a few days, AI chip juggernaut Nvidia sat on the throne as the world's biggest company, but behind its staggering success are questions on whether new entrants can stake a claim to the artificial intelligence bonanza. Nvidia, which makes the processors that are the only option to train generative AI's large language models, is now Big Tech's newest member and its stock market takeoff has lifted the whole sector.
Even tech's second rung on Wall Street has ridden on Nvidia's coattails with Oracle, Broadcom, HP and a spate of others seeing their stock valuations surge, despite sometimes shaky earnings. Amid the champagne popping, startups seeking the attention of Silicon Valley venture capitalists are being asked to innovate -- but without a clear indication of where the next chapter of AI will be written.
The Future of AI
When it comes to generative AI, doubts persist on what exactly will be left for companies that are not existing model makers, a field dominated by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Most agree that competing with them head-on could be a fool's errand. "I don't think that there's a great opportunity to start a foundational AI company at this point in time," said Mike Myer, founder and CEO of tech firm Quiq, at the Collision technology conference in Toronto.
Some have tried to build applications that use or mimic the powers of the existing big models, but this is being slapped down by Silicon Valley's biggest players. "What I find disturbing is that people are not differentiating between those applications which are roadkill for the models as they progress in their capabilities, and those that are really adding value and will be here 10 years from now," said venture capital veteran.
Exploring New Avenues
One of the fields ripe for the taking is chip design, with AI demanding ever more specialized processors that provide highly specific powers. "If you look across the chip history, we really have for the most part focused on more general chips," Rebecca Parsons, CTO at tech consultancy Thoughtworks, told AFP.
Providing more specialized processing for the many demands of AI is an opportunity seized by Groq, a hot startup that has built chips for the deployment of AI as opposed to its training, or inference -- the specialty of Nvidia’s GPUs.
Specialized AI and Expertise
Another opportunity lies in highly specialized AI that will provide expertise and know-how based on proprietary data which won’t be co-opted by big tech. "Open AI and Google aren't going to build a structural engineer. They're not going to build products like a primary care doctor or a mental health therapist," said a venture capital veteran.
Profiting from highly specialized data is the basis of Cohere, another of Silicon Valley's hottest startups that pitches specifically-made models to businesses that are skittish about AI veering out of their control.
Originally published on doc.afp.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
