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Fb mum or dad Meta is teaming up with Hugging Face and European cloud infrastructure company Scaleway to launch a brand new AI-focused startup program on the Station F startup megacampus in Paris.
The underlying aim of this system is to advertise a extra “open and collaborative” method to AI improvement throughout the French know-how world.
The timing of the announcement is notable, coming amid a rising push for regulation and a marked battle between the “open” and “closed” AI realms.
Most of the main tech corporations together with Microsoft, Google, and ChatGPT-developer OpenAI, are arguing for extra regulation and warning of the existential risk posed by AI, regardless that they’re concurrently creating highly effective AI applied sciences themselves. A few of these arguments heart on the dangers of open supply AI, and the way it may very well be manipulated by dangerous actors. On the opposite aspect of the talk is the notion that these tech corporations are merely scaremongering to drive regulators into supporting a extra “closed” AI improvement ethos, finally defending themselves from competitors.
Meta could be very a lot within the latter camp. Final week, the corporate’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun joined more than 70 other signatories in calling for more openness in AI development, warning towards an excessive amount of regulatory haste.
“Historical past exhibits us that shortly dashing in the direction of the improper sort of regulation can result in concentrations of energy in ways in which harm competitors and innovation,” the letter famous. “Open fashions can inform an open debate and enhance coverage making. If our aims are security, safety and accountability, then openness and transparency are important elements to get us there.”
And it’s towards that backdrop that Meta is teaming up with one of many greatest gamers within the open supply AI house.
Whereas Meta itself has been open-sourcing its own generative AI models, Hugging Face — a billion-dollar VC-backed startup in its own right — has set out its stall as a type of open source alternative to OpenAI, replete with open options to the likes of ChatGPT and spearheading community projects such as BigScience.
So in some ways, Meta and Hugging Face’s tie-up as we speak makes an excessive amount of sense, given their respective stances on the entire “open” vs “closed” AI dialogue.
“For me, open supply AI is a very powerful subject of the last decade as it’s the cornerstone towards democratizing moral AI,” Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue stated in a press release.
Open basis
From as we speak via December 1 (2023), startups can apply to affix the brand new “AI Startup Program” at Station F, with 5 winners continuing to the accelerator program that may run from January to June. The chosen startups, chosen by a panel of judges from Meta, Hugging Face, and French cloud firm Scaleway, could have no less than one factor in frequent — they are going to be engaged on tasks substantively constructed on open basis fashions, or on the very least can exhibit a “willingness to combine these fashions into their services,” in accordance with the announcement issued by Meta as we speak.
“With the proliferation of basis fashions and generative synthetic intelligence fashions, the goal is to convey the financial and technological advantages of open, state-of-the-art fashions to the French ecosystem,” the announcement famous.
It’s considerably notable that Meta has chosen to sidestep the key cloud infrastructure corporations — and open-source AI naysayers — comparable to Microsoft and Google, as an alternative opting to associate with a smaller, unbiased European participant within the type of Scaleway.
Certainly, the profitable startups will obtain mentoring from researchers and engineers at Meta, acquire entry to Hugging Face’s numerous platforms and instruments, and compute assets from Scaleway.
Whereas it could be incorrect to say that Meta has given up on its lofty metaverse ambitions, a lot has modified up to now 12 months. Nearly precisely a yr in the past, Meta teamed up with L’Oréal and French enterprise faculty HEC to launch a startup accelerator at Station F centered on all-things VR/AR/MR. However with the ChatGPT and generative AI hype prepare gaining steam, Meta has had to refocus its efforts on one thing just a little extra near-term, which is the place this new accelerator program enters the fray.
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