Mere minority of orgs put GenAI in production after year of hype
- Reference: 1701889209
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/12/06/organizations_gnererative_ai_use/
- Source link:
Overall, 45 percent have made some steps in adopting generative AI, either through pushing solutions to prod, developing the models but not launching them, or starting early pilot projects. But [1]research carried out by Intel-owned cnvrg.io cited a number of difficulties hampering global organizations' efforts to embrace the technology.
The biggest barrier for most of the 434 tech pros that fed into the study was down to basic infrastructure, with 46 percent citing it as a reason for not developing large language models (LLMs). Compliance and privacy (28 percent), reliability (23 percent), high cost of implementation (19 percent), and a lack of technical skills (17 percent) were also highlighted as key influences for the low rate of uptake.
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The findings broadly echo those of similar studies; earlier this year, digital services biz Nash Squared [3]revealed that just 10 percent of UK organizations have a significant AI implementation, while around a third have at least started piloting generative AI.
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Nash CEO Bev White said that organizations are conscious of the compliance and safety risks, and feel unprepared for the challenges presented by [6]generative AI adoption.
What won't be helping decision-makers commit to AI plans is the regulatory landscape, which hasn't matched the explosive pace of development over the last year.
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The European Commission, for example, [8]today entered what are expected to be long and labored talks to hash out key points of its AI Act. Once finalized, those looking to adopt AI in the EU will have a clearer understanding of the rules governing its development and implementation, it's claimed.
The latest findings come after analyst house Gartner told El Reg that for end-user organizations, investment in generative AI is the "least important" part of a growing worldwide spend on IT.
Vendors are investing significantly more into the technology than their customers are right now and, as many will have noticed over the past year, the majority of vendors are sprinkling the technology across their product portfolios but are yet to see returns on that investment.
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Ultimately, the amount of money that organizations are estimated to spend on generative AI isn't likely to change a great deal, [10]said John-David Lovelock, distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner. If most vendors are sprinkling AI across their products, customers will instead make their decisions based on which org has the better AI, but that alone won't play a big role in how much is spent overall.
However, for those that choose to make the investment in generative AI, the benefits have been felt, as per Intel's survey. More than half have improved their customer experiences, upped efficiency, and enhanced product capabilities, the report claimed, adding 47 percent believed they'd saved money in the process.
"While still in early development, generative AI has been one of the most talked-about technologies of 2023," [11]said Markus Flierl, general manager of Intel Cloud Services.
[12]EU running in circles trying to get AI Act out the door
[13]Digital memories are disappearing and not even AI or Google can help
[14]Cisco intros AI to find firewall flaws, warns this sort of thing can't be free
[15]Boffins devise 'universal backdoor' for image models to cause AI hallucinations
"The survey suggests organizations may be hesitant to adopt GenAI due to the barriers they face when implementing LLMs. With greater access to cost-effective infrastructure and services... we expect greater adoption in the next year as it will be easier to fine-tune, customize, and deploy existing LLMs without requiring AI talent to manage the complexity."
Taking it all the way to the bank. Gulp...
The IT and software industries, perhaps unsurprisingly, are leading the way with adoption, while financial services, defense, and insurance closely follow behind.
Research from McKinsey [16]this week pegged banking's potential annual earnings gains from deploying generative AI to be in the region of $340 billion, between a 9-15 percent increase in operating profits – among the largest lifts across any industry.
Legal and risk management sectors are also set for large potential benefits, but a greater proportion of that is comprised of traditional AI and analytics, the consultancy claimed.
That said, most industries stand to benefit in some way. Software engineering is one of the early beneficiaries of generative AI, although there has been criticism of the quality of the code. GitHub's Copilot tool has so far proven a hit among devs, despite the Microsoft-owned company running it at a [17]loss and facing [18]serious legal challenges . ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://cnvrg.io/ml-insider-results-2023/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZXD9H7qyarm8@WmTbeWaOgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/30/just_one_in_ten_uk/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZXD9H7qyarm8@WmTbeWaOgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZXD9H7qyarm8@WmTbeWaOgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/13/generative_ai_its_not_just/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZXD9H7qyarm8@WmTbeWaOgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/06/eu_ai_act_negotiations/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZXD9H7qyarm8@WmTbeWaOgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/19/software_growth_gartner/
[11] https://cnvrg.io/ml-insider-results-2023/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/06/eu_ai_act_negotiations/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/06/down_the_memory_hole/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/06/cisco_ai_security/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/06/universal_backdoor_llm_image/
[16] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/capturing-the-full-value-of-generative-ai-in-banking
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/11/github_ai_copilot_microsoft/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/09/github_copilot_lawsuit/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
AI is given extreme lip service in 2023, but where are real applications of it?
Nearly every new version of old IT products nowadays presumably contains "AI" capabilities in some form.
SAP, Excel, Fortinet, Cisco, etc.
However, if you look closer at the so-called AI capabilities, they usually do resemble closely what was advertised in the last years as simply automation of some kind, "integrated analytics", "big data", "data fabric" or any of the "smart"-somethings of the late 2010s.
The seemlingly unstoppable trend of AI-in-everything does often seem to result from a marketing department in full overdrive mode, while credibility of claims is built by some interesting and often impressive simulation of text-comprehension by publicly available LLMs - which are still just applied statistics on steroids...
Contrary to what the companies above (and many others) claim - I still need to see an "AI" implementation in older products that does not just result in a more or less useful text generator, that manages to summarize things it read "on the internet" sometimes correctly.
AI development
What are we shipping now?
Label it AI
Issue press release
Job done.
Re: AI is given extreme lip service in 2023, but where are real applications of it?
Well said. Especially "a marketing department in full overdrive mode" - which well described Sam Altman himself, and all his TED-like waffles.
I still need to see an "AI" implementation ... that manages to summarize things it read "on the internet" sometimes correctly
What I hope to see are summaries embedded with real , not hallucinated, references. I did download and am trying an app "Perplexity" which is focused on doing just that, which seems to index up to date news so that it can be referenced by AI queries. It's actually a layer built on top of a multiplicity of other AI models. The results are hope-inspiring - the summaries do indeed include lots of real references. The question is whether such a model can be economically self sustaining. It doesn't have ads, telling the truth is not as profitable as telling lies, and paid subscriptions (with the exception of Amazon) have never really taken off.
First rule of reading somebody's statistics: ask what the sample is & what it represents.
What are these organisations? Are they businesses? University CS departments? Small businesses?
As many as 10% of businesses of all sizes using AI? I wonder what "More or Less" would make of that.
Orgs being sold a pup
When something is being pushed and hyped as much as GenAI is, your being sold a pup. There is no way GenAI can ever live up to the hype. Even if it solved global warming, delivered world peace while giving you a fucking blowjob.
The reason only 10% of orgs have dipped their toes in GenAI is because orgs don’t know what to do with it. Then again neither do the tech companies and venders otherwise they would have a GenAI product and not have had to resort to sprinkling AI across their products.
But it has been a success in the 10% that have dipped their toes in GenAI. ” More than half (51%?) have improved their customer experiences, upped efficiency, and enhanced product capabilities, the report claimed” . That’s probably because the people surveyed are probably the very people who made the decision to adopt GenAI and are probably not going to admit they have been sold a pup.
Interestingly ”47 percent believed they'd saved money in the process” , so 53% didn’t save money. Also, the 47% only believed, they don’t know, they may not have saved money either. So, 53% - 100% have not saved money in the process.
BTW I recommend reading the linked McKinsey article it's a masterclass in the art of saying a lot while at the same time saying nothing.
Seen this before
Remember a few years ago when all sorts of companies were investigating blockchain, but there were very few production applications using it? I recall reading articles like this one, differing only by s/blockchain/generative AI/g