“We don’t have a moat and neither does OpenAI”

“We don’t have a moat, and neither does OpenAI.”

The words come from a leaked Google memo that reveals at least one senior software engineer is worried the company will lose the AI ​​competition to open-source technology.

The memo says that while Google and OpenAI are focused on each other, open source projects are faster and more efficient at solving key AI problems.

The memo’s author, an unidentified senior software engineer, says Google’s big AI models are no longer seen as an advantage, with open source models being faster, more customizable and more personal.

The memo suggests that Google should consider joining the open source movement and owning the platform, just as it dominates Chrome and Android.

The memo comes amid reports of rapid changes at Google, as the company competes with the likes of OpenAI, Microsoft and others to develop artificial intelligence.

One such change came in December, when Google announced a “code red” to refocus AI. The second came in February, when Google’s head of AI, Jeff Dean, made a major policy change.

In the past, Google’s AI researchers were encouraged to share their research by publishing academic papers. (Google’s ground-breaking work on Transformers in 2017 was one such paper.) Now Google will focus on turning AI advances into products. early Sharing research papers.

In Episode 46 of The Marketing AI Show, Marketing AI Institute Founder/CEO Paul Roetzer explained the importance of the memo.

1. This is one point of view. It’s important to remember that this memo comes from a single senior software engineer. Just because the memo is out there doesn’t mean Google’s decision-makers value it or agree with its arguments, Roetzer says.
2. But this raises a very important issue to consider: open source. The author of the memo emphasizes that Google should take seriously the competition between open source models and products. And indeed, open source has become a major concern for big AI companies thanks to recent developments in the space.
3. Because open source is having its “LLaMA moment” right now. Recently, Meta announced that it has created LLaMA, a 65 billion parameter Basic Large Language Model. Meta intended for a controlled release of the model to the research community. Instead, the model was leaked publicly. This means that anyone can build on top of LLaMA and use it for their own purposes. “That started to change things,” says Roetzer. In fact, we’ve already seen an explosion of open source innovation on top of LLaMA.
4. This could disrupt Google’s previous strategies. The memo’s author notes that the LLaMA leak could make Google’s own models and products built on them less competitive. Why would anyone pay for Google’s models and products when they can access an expensive, powerful model like LLaMA and products built on it for free?
5. Using open source can be one way. The main argument of the memo is this, says Roetzer: “Google needs to find another way to make this massive language model that’s closed to everyone doesn’t win.” This may include owning and supporting the open source ecosystem.

Bottom line: Although Google is taking the note seriously, the document provides useful insight into the competitive landscape of artificial intelligence and the importance of open source.

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