🤖 Code Llama Shows Meta Is Serious

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This news is out of this world:

• Meta launches on AI code-writer

• Look at the startups that can challenge Nvidia

• Stephen King speaks up about AI copyright issues

• Hugging Face lands a huge new round of funding

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Welcome to the latest edition of “Software Developers Fear for their Future”!

In today’s episode, we meet Code Llama, a new AI code-writer created by Meta. Their AI researchers used Llama 2 (their top-level LLM) to build a high-performing, open AI to write and edit code for anyone.

In all seriousness, Meta is not the first company to make this tool, but the commercial permissions and low-latency options mean Code Llama matters in this space, even if they were late to the punch.

So, what are the details?

Nothing earth-shattering, but that’s a lot of AI news lately. Code Llama performs well in benchmark tests; for instance, it scored 53.7 percent on HumanEval.

And Meta even released a Python-specific version for developers called Code Llama-Python (so creative).

Both versions are on the same community license as Llama 2, as mentioned above. All that means is that the model is free for research and commercial use.

Yet, at the end of the day, is this even news?

We all expected Meta to release a code-writing model at some point. They claim it performs better than other LLMs in this space, but the evidence is slim.

If you ask me, I’d say the release does affect that segment of the AI space, but we’re still not in a place where coders need to worry about their day jobs. That panic was overblown, and we’re learning that the AI’s code is nowhere near perfect.

What’s novel is the same thing that’s novel about Llama: the community license. More companies can create their own code assistants, and the barrier-to-entry that startups like Replit enjoyed for a while is gone.

So, with that in mind, this is big news, and the ripples will show up soon. You can count on that.

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News about Nvidia and its chip distribution problems make waves weekly (see below).

But why is no one pushing them on this problem and creating a competitor?

Lucky for you, The Information has the details and names. 

Let’s meet some and give them a “chance to overthrow” score from 1-10.

1/ Modular - They help engineers run models between different hardware setups to balance cost and performance

4/10

2/ MatX - They developed a specialized chip for LLMs used for text applications

3/10

3/ Rain Neuromorphics - Their insight is clear: combine memory and processing to minimize the heat generated by chips, which saves on cooling. Sam Altman is backing them.

5/10

4/ Lightmatter - They use lasers to move data between chips and groups of servers (that’s what the article says; it’s the simplest way to say it).

2/10 (only because they’re an acquisition target)

There are a few more we didn’t mention, but keep this in mind:

These are second-wave startups. In 2017, a few companies sprang up to take on Nvidia, but—well—there’s a reason we need another wave.

While it’s unlikely any of them surpass Nvidia, they are all getting us closer to better, more efficient hardware.

🏛️ It’s up to the courts to answer some of the biggest questions around AI

📌 Stephen King writes about his feelings on AI using his work

💾 The Nvidia chip shortage leaves a ton of AI startups in a holding pattern or panic

📷 An AI surveillance tool, DHS, monitors emotional sentiment in individuals

🤗 $235m: That’s the big funding number Hugging Face landed with lead investors like Salesforce and Nvidia

🗣️ AI helps a paralyzed woman speak through an avatar

🧠 Researchers examine the possibility of incorporating transformer models into your brain

🔞 Google and Microsoft continue to feed and sustain AI DeepFake creators

• Unriddle - helps users read, write, & learn faster (link)

• Mine My Reviews - uncover customer gold w/ AI (link)

• Watto - transform your product team w/ AI docs (link)

• IndieZebra - A/B test your Product Hunt launch (link)

• Fabric - rediscover your notes & files as you browse (link)

• PhotoCaptions - AI crafts the perfect captions (link)

• PinMyPrompt - pin ChatGPT prompts to specific web pages (link)

• ClothingAI - design your dream clothing (link)

Ancient Baseball

Still playing better baseball than the Oakland Athletics, aye-o!

_{- That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed the latest edition of inclined.ai - Davis.}