Source: Adobe Stock.
One year ago today ChatGPT was unleashed into the world, heralding a generative AI evolution. The aftershock was felt throughout the world of tech and beyond over the preceding 365 days. Big tech companies scrambled to get their own products out the door to claim market share. Meanwhile early adopting small businesses began exploring to not miss on the opportunities this (not actually new) technology afforded.
a year ago tonight we were probably just sitting around the office putting the finishing touches on chatgpt before the next morning’s launch.
what a year it’s been…
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 30, 2023
The quick evolution of ChatGPT
ChatGPT started life as a free tool built on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model. It was basically a chat interface that could only be accessed via the web. But within a week it had gone viral and become the world’s fastest-growing consumer application ever — at least until Meta released Threads in 2023.
Since its initial release, it has seen a whirlwind of enhancements — including mobile apps and paid tiers for enterprise clients. It also became more powerful and now has the ability to perform image creation with DALL-E 3, text-to-image comprehension and speech recognition. And just a few weeks back it announced plans for paid customers to be able to create and sell their own GPTs.
That’s a hell lot of major product updates across just 12 months.
ChatGPT made the big tech react
ChatGPT’s evolution from a chatbot to a foundational development platform caused a ripple effect across the entire ecosystem. While it’s doubtful that big tech wasn’t already working on products in this space (again, AI isn’t new), the success of OpenAI forced them to accelerate their own plans and product releases.
In response, Google launched Bard, its own AI chatbot, as well as Duet AI. And there’s talk that Deepmind, Google’s AI research unit, will release another named Gemini in 2024.
Earlier this year we also saw the likes of Adobe and Salesforce go big on AI announcements. The arrival of gen AI into the mainstream was big businesss as we saw when we saw the valuation and stock price of Nvidia — which is making GPUs for AI — skyrocket.
And these are just a handful of examples. Companies all over the world are going big on AI. Just this week AWS unveiled its own answer to ChatGPT, but specifically for businesses — Amazon Q. Considering the sheer number of SMEs utilising free tools like ChatGPT with sensitive data — it is a smart move on AWS’ part.
And because we can’t go a week without invoking Elon Musk in some way, he is also set to release his own chatGPT competitor, Grok, this week as well. This is of course incredibly funny for us Aussies in the startup space.
The impact of a global AI evolution on Australia
We’ve also seen a push locally. Back in March, Canva announced its foray into generative AI to coincide with Adobe’s announcements. It then went all in when it announced an entire Magic Studio platform dedicated to gen AI, with accompanying security features.
But it is not just unicorns getting in on the action. A recent study showed that 19% of SMEs in Australia are already using AI. Considering that there are roughly 500,000 SMEs in Australia, it’s a decent number.
We’re also seeing the adoption, and innovation, at a local micro level.
In SmartCompany‘s Melbourne instalment of the Pitch — our early-stage startup competition — this week, three of the five competing startups were using AI technology.
The grand prize winner on the night, Eyeonic, is a medtech that uses AI software to enable home glaucoma testing on any laptop or tablet, which has the potential to scale affordable and accessible glaucoma testing all over the world.
Farm Automation, another shortlisted entry, uses drone technology and AI to generate better paddock grazing schedules for dairy farmers that can increase milk yield by 15% and boost soil health and carbon absorption.
There’s still problems to work through
But the generative AI journey of 2023 has not been without its problems. And I’m not just talking about the popcorn-munching drama that happened at OpenAI in recent weeks, with CEO Sam Altman being fired and rehired in the space of a few days.
The rate of adoption and subsequent race from competitors has resulted in a slew of issues, particularly as laws and regulations race to catch up. There’s AI hallucinations, large language models (LLMs) being trained on the intellectual property of artists and authors without their permission.
There’s fears around job loss — particularly with the economy being the toilet and the immense amount of tech layers that have happened simultaneously with the AI revolution. And on top of all of that there’s very valid fears from businesses around data security and AI bill shock.
The changing AI tide in 2024
There’s a lot to work through as ChatGPT enters its second year. And while 2023 proved that we never can entirely predict what the future will hold, I have a few predictions.
Now that we have moved a little ways past the adoption panic phase, security and safety has began to dominate the conversation all the more, with the likes of Salesforce and AWS loudly leading the charge in the small business space. This speaks to the idea that big tech will hopefully engage in self-governance and common sense as regulators across the globe slowly enter the chat.
Sam Altman even touched on this as a focus point for OpenAI in an open letter penned just this week.
“Advancing our research plan and further investing in our full-stack safety efforts, which have always been critical to our work. Our research roadmap is clear; this was a wonderfully focusing time,” Altman wrote.
But I also think we will see increased collaboration. While individual companies have raced to get their own AI products in the virtual shelves, what has become clear is that for AI to succeed it has to be customer-focused. And a siloed ecosystem is the opposite of that.
Different LLMs are better for different tasks — locking a business or customer into just one is counterintuitive, especially in the enterprise space. And that’s why we’re already seeing historical competitors make nice with each other on the AI front.
Amongst the flurry of Amazon Q news this week was that it will allow for over 40 in-built connectors with enterprise systems such as Salesforce, Slack, Microsoft SharePoint and Google Drive.
For AI to continue this exponential it needs to be accessible, and trustworthy. And that’s where I expect the narrative to lie in 2024. I look forward to seeing how it all shakes out — and whether OpenAI will continue to play a pivotal role, or if history will prove it to have been a mere catalyst in something much bigger.
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