Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently explained how their AI products have reached a point where they can begin making AI more beneficial for everyone at Google I/O 2023. Responding to this, Civo Chief Innovation Officer Josh Mesout wrote a response to the subject that was featured in the Financial Times Letters section, one of the top news organizations in the world and a source of essential information across the tech industry.
Josh Mesout spoke about the need for a developer-first community, saying:
“Open source is rapidly becoming the engine room of AI innovation, putting the needs of the developer community first. The machine learning tooling from the likes of AWS, Google and Microsoft is highly complex and expensive to run - putting it out of reach for many smaller firms. Open source significantly lowers the barrier to entry, offering users a far more efficient and cutting-edge way to get up and running with AI, letting them shape the technology to the needs of the business.”
According to research, 55% of executives feel that AI will aid in the creation of new business models, products, and services, while 74% of executives think it would result in more effective business operations. However, this will only be achievable if the barrier to entry for AI is lowered, allowing individuals, small businesses, and startups to access the same adoption.
By embracing open source, AI can promote innovation with less restriction and lower costs, which is particularly beneficial to the wider tech community. Josh Mesout explained how this is the next step we must take:
“It is now up to the tech community to ensure AI is developed responsibly for the benefit of everyone. If not, we risk “the most profound technology humanity is working on today”, as Pichai calls AI, being controlled by providers who ultimately build with shareholders in mind, not developers.”
To read more about the Financial Times’ article and words from our Chief Innovation Officer Josh Mesout, visit the online version (paywalled) by clicking here.