AI Startups Compete With OpenAI In Development Of Artificial Intelligence Base Models

Illustration of artificial intelligence which is now widely developed by startups. (photo: Doc. Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Microsoft supported by OpenAI is no longer the only option for software developers looking to capitalize on the artificial intelligence market which is estimated to be worth US$90 billion (IDR 1,360 trillion).

Driven by fears of being reliant on a single company, a desire for models tailored to specific tasks, and opportunities to cut costs, more than a dozen startups and investors say they are embracing rivals to industry leader OpenAI, casting a shadow on hopes that Microsoft Corp and OpenAI will dominate this fledgling field.

The shift of some software developers towards alternative AI base models shows how the next chapter of generative AI - defined as technologies capable of generating text, images, or other media in response to requests - could unfold.

George Mathew, an AI investor at Insight Partners, compares the underlying model of AI to other technological breakthroughs that gave birth to competition. The basic model is an AI system trained on large data sets with the ability to learn to perform multiple tasks.

“Do we only have one internet service provider?” Mathew said, as quoted by Reuters. "In the same way, we will need some of the basic model providers for healthy functioning ecosystems."

"The advantages that OpenAI currently has will not make it the only choice," he added.

AI storytelling startup Tome, which helps users build slides faster, was originally built on GPT-3, the base model first released by OpenAI in 2020. Tome says it reached 3 million users this month, and is starting to experiment with other models.

They have added text models from OpenAI competitor Anthropic and plan to move from DALL-E, OpenAI's photo generation model, to the open-source Stable Diffusion model, built by Stability AI.

"The goal is to find the model that works best for each action with the lowest delay and the best quality," said Keith Peiris, CEO of Tome.

AI developers and investors say there is a new industry consensus to reduce reliance on one model, in a bid to provide more reliable services, limit costs and take advantage of different model specializations.

OpenAI shot to fame after its ChatGPT chatbot surprised many with its ability to answer complex questions in clear and grammatical language that looks human. The company has already attracted US$10 billion (IDR150 trillion) in investment from Microsoft, and major competitors including Alphabet Inc's Google and smaller companies are rushing to create new models.

The newly launched GPT-4 model by OpenAI is currently still the most powerful by many standards.