What is LLMOps? ⚡

Hey Readers, Happy Sunday! 👋

In today's edition, I'll cover the following:

1. My concept of the week: What is LLMOps?

2. AI news update:

   - AI Avatar on TikTok

   - HuggingChat released and free

   - Huge investment by UK Government in AI

   - Russia’s Sberbank announced GigaChat to compete with ChatGPT

3. My new Interview: A demo of AutoAI with Óscar, Principal Data Scientist at IBM

Let's dive in! 🤿

📚 My AI post of the Week: What is LLMOps?

Large language models (LLMs) are a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that have been trained on massive datasets of text and code. They can be used for a variety of tasks, such as natural language processing, machine translation, and code generation. However, LLMs are also very computationally expensive to train and deploy.

LLMOps stands for Large Language Model Operations. It is a subfield of MLOps that focuses on the operational capabilities and infrastructure required to fine-tune existing foundational models and deploy these refined models as part of a product.

🗞️Top News of the Week

1. TikTok is launching AI Avatars

TikTok is testing a new feature that allows users to create AI-generated avatars for their profile pictures. The feature is still in the early stages of testing and is only available in select regions. However, the examples that have been shared so far look promising, with a wide range of fun styles to choose from. This could be a fun way for users to express themselves and add a creative touch to their profiles.

2. HuggingChat, an open-source ChatGPT clone, is available and free!

Hugging Face announced the release of HuggingChat, an open-source ChatGPT clone that anyone can use or download for themselves. HuggingChat is based on the Open Assistant Conversational AI Model, which is a project of the non-profit Large-scale Artificial Intelligence Open Network (LAION).

HuggingChat was trained with the OpenAssistant Conversations Dataset (OASST1), which is a very new dataset that was collected up to April 12, 2023. The dataset is the product of a worldwide crowdsourcing effort by over 13,000 volunteers.

HuggingChat is open for users right now. Registration to create a login account is not necessary to use it. Don't expect ChatGPT level of output, the service is not at that level yet. The app page lists it as version 0.0, which should give an idea of how mature it is at this point. Nevertheless, it's a remarkable achievement and the first step for the open-source community and there is absolutely no charge to use it. You can try it here: https://huggingface.co/chat/

3. The UK has allocated a budget of £100 million for AI

The UK government announced an initial £100 million ($124.5 million) in funding to establish a Foundation Model Taskforce. The taskforce is inspired by the UK's COVID-19 vaccine unit and will report directly to the Prime Minister and Technology Secretary. The taskforce's goal is to develop AI that is "globally competitive" and "safe and reliable." The funding comes alongside roughly £900 million ($1.1 billion) in the UK budget devoted to both an exascale supercomputer and dedicated AI research resources.

The UK government hopes that the taskforce will help the UK to develop its own AI technology and avoid the ethical and technical pitfalls that have led experts to call for a six-month pause on experiments. The taskforce will also work with the industry to make these systems safer and more reliable.

To some degree, the UK already has a major presence in AI. Google's mainly London-based DeepMind team produces cutting-edge AI research, for instance. However, the hottest systems in recent memory have been developed elsewhere — ChatGPT is the work of US-based OpenAI. The taskforce theoretically keeps British AI relevant despite this trend toward foreign-born technologies.

4. GigaChat, a rival to ChatGPT, has been launched by Russia's Sberbank

Russia’s Sberbank has released a new AI chatbot called GigaChat that is designed to compete with ChatGPT. GigaChat is currently in an invite-only testing mode, but Sberbank plans to make it available to the public in the future.

GigaChat is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, and it is able to communicate and generate human-like text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions. For example, GigaChat can be used to provide customer service, answer questions, or even write creative content.

The release of GigaChat is part of a larger trend in the technology sector to put AI into more users' hands. The hope is that AI can be used to improve people's lives and make work more efficient.

GigaChat is seen as a way for Russia to lessen its dependence on imports and develop its own AI technology. The chatbot is also seen as a way for Russia to improve its image on the global stage.

🎙️ Interview of the week: AutoAI Demo - train models in just a few clicks!

In my last interview, I talk to Óscar Lara-Yejas, Principal Data Scientist at IBM. He demonstrated how to use IBM Watson AutoAI, a tool that automates ML tasks including feature engineering and selection, choosing the type of machine learning algorithm; building an analytical model based on the algorithm; hyperparameter optimization, training the model on tested data sets and running the model to generate scores and findings. I hope you enjoy it and try it out, it is great for tabular data and even times series.

See you next Sunday!

Armand 😎