Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way we do business, create content, and develop products. At mottum we believe that the key to getting the most out of it lies in understanding when it is most appropriate to use each of the alternatives on the market.
The conversation about Artificial Intelligence (AI) is part of our daily life, however, the concepts that will allow us to better understand it are not necessarily in the DNA of users. Precisely for this reason, in this note we want to clarify three basic concepts and then delve into what type of AI to use to get the best out of each one.
Machine Learning (ML): It is a sub-discipline of AI that focuses on the design, development and application of algorithms that allow machines to improve their performance in a specific task through experience. Essentially, it’s about giving computers the ability to “learn” from data without being explicitly programmed to do so.
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AGI): is a field of AI that has the objective of creating new content from a description or prompt. These can be texts, images, music, voices, videos, among others. Through advanced algorithms, these systems can produce content that, at first glance, may appear to be human-made.
Large Language Models (LLMs): are AI models specialized in the generation of new textual data. They are designed to understand and generate human language, giving them a reasoning ability not seen before in AI. It has a wide range of applications, from virtual assistants to research and development.
In short, Machine Learning is the AI we knew until now. The AGIs have recently arrived, to break into everything we knew in this field, and more specifically the LLMs, which are one of the best-known types of AGIs.
LLMs have become popular and versatile in a variety of applications due to their ability to generate, understand, and reason through natural language texts. Some of the more common uses for these models include:
- Virtual Assistants and Chatbots.
- Content generation.
- Search and collection of Information.
- Translate texts.
- Education.
- Investigation and development.
- Games (dialogues for characters).
- Review and editing of text.
- Sentiment analysis.
- Conversation simulation.
- Integration with applications.
- Creativity and entertainment.
Although we often associate LLMs with OpenAI due to the popularity of ChatGPT, it is essential to recognize that OpenAI was not the forerunner in this field. Actually, Google with its Transformer model in 2017 laid the foundation. This innovative model changed the paradigm by allowing a greater and more efficient capture of relationships in textual data. However, it was OpenAI who saw the commercial potential of these models and decided to take a step forward in that direction.
Now that we know the theoretical framework, we can address our central issue: how do we know when to use some of the AI options that we have access to?
Knowing that the criteria to answer the previous question can be subjective and be biased by the amount of information to which we have access. In this note, we have chosen to mention five options and present them from the most primary criteria that each one can have: its mission, the purpose of its creation.
Therefore, what follows is not a ranking, it is a presentation:
Open AI (ChatGPT)
Undoubtedly the best known, so far. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, declares that its mission is to “ensure that generative artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity.“
Seen from this point of view, it suggests that the tool can be used for everything, however, there are uses for which it is most effective: summarize texts, extracting the most relevant; generate content (the quality of the result depends to a large extent on how good, precise and detailed our request is), review and edit texts, do brainstorming and even “reasoning“.
It’s important to remember that so far, it has certain limitations: by itself it doesn’t work primarily as a search engine, because it was trained on data going as far as the year 2021, and therefore doesn’t know current information.
This AI describes itself as “your AI research assistant” and publicly states that its goal is “to make searching for information online feel like you have an expert assistant guiding you. An assistant who knows what interests you and can explain things to you in a way that you understand.”
Although it is an AI model similar to ChatGPT, it has an important differentiating element: Perplexity specifies in detail the source of information from which it obtained the results. This gives the user confidence and a way to expand information on a specific topic. With this they manage to position themselves as a strong potential competitor to Google.
Anthropic (Claude)
“We believe that AI will have a great impact on the world. Anthropic is dedicated to building systems that people can trust and generating research on the opportunities and risks of AI“, is what they state as their purpose, while their goal is “to build cutting-edge AI systems that are reliable, interpretable and addressable”.
Anthropic’s AI assistant is called Claude (currently only available in the US and UK) and it differs from the rest because it uses a specific approach called “Constitutional AI” that makes it more aware, fun and natural. This particularity makes it much more powerful in applications where it is necessary to give the AI a more human character, such as customer service.
Another differentiating use is that it allows the automation of workflows designed through instructions in human language.
Google’s AI offering is called Bard, which describes itself as “the helpful, creative collaborator that unleashes your imagination, increases your productivity, and brings your ideas to life.”
Bard’s differentiator is that it is being trained to be able to answer NORA (No One Right Answer) type questions, that is, those that do not have a single valid answer. Bard as a Google product is still in an experimental phase, which means that they clearly warn the user that the answers may be inappropriate or inaccurate.
Given its purpose, Bard is not intended to be used for academic, educational, or research purposes. Its intention is to position itself as the AI that everyone uses (as we do with the Google search), that is, in an assistant that you can ask which are the best plants to decorate your house, ideas to surprise your best friend on your birthday or simply ask for help planning an express trip to Milan.
This is the AI of Elon Musk, creator of Tesla and Space X; CEO of X and leader or founder of many other companies that are innovating in various sectors. Although it has not yet been released, we include it in the list, because its raison d’être attracts a lot of attention: “to understand the true nature of the universe”. It certainly arouses our curiosity. We will continue to wait to find out exactly how it will work and what its recommended uses will be.
Conclusion
Artificial Intelligence is a fascinating and powerful tool that is transforming many aspects of our daily and professional lives. However, like any tool, its efficiency and effectiveness lies in knowing when and how to use it.
Every AI has a purpose, therefore, It is crucial to know how to choose the right one based on specific needs and objectives.
While all of these tools offer many possibilities, it is also essential to approach them with creativity and critical thinking, always remembering that they are not without their errors or limitations.
Do you need guidance on how to implement Artificial Intelligence in your organization? Do you need a practical course for your team to increase efficiency using AI? Do you need to know how to introduce AI in your company taking data security into account? At mottum we are ready to help you select, integrate and maximize the AI that best suits your goals. Get in touch with us today and let’s talk about how AI can take your business to the next level!