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OpenAI is expanding their custom model training program. So today on the podcast I want to dive into what this means, why this is important, and talk about some of the interesting use cases that we're seeing from this fine tuned model. There's a bunch of companies that are actually using these fine tuned models that you probably didn't know about, I personally didn't know about. There's some very interesting use cases. I'll talk about the features. What's going on? Let's get into the podcast. So the first thing that I want to talk about here is just the fact that, that obviously this is a use case that a lot of people have been using. This is essentially the custom model program and it's set up essentially to help companies create generative AI models that are tailored for specific use cases. So you can imagine if a law firm or a healthcare provider wanted to use ChatGPT, but they're like, hey, it doesn't know all this, like really specific stuff about the healthcare industry. They would be able to provide extra data and they would fine tune a model. It's essentially ChatGPT or GPT4, but with all this extra industry specific knowledge and this is what, you know, they're kind of helping people to do so. Custom models. And all of this was actually introduced at OpenAI's first developer conference. If you remember, they had their big dev day and this essentially allowed businesses to work with OpenAI researchers. So this wasn't like you could do it yourself, you pretty much had to go collaborate. And I actually saw some like, I saw some, some reports saying that like you had to spend like a million dollars or something crazy in order to do this. So it definitely wasn't for everyone, but there was a bunch of people doing it. So since they launched this, they did a big blog and they said quote, dozens. So I'm assuming, I don't know what, like dozens, like a handful of dozens? I don't know. There's probably like somewhere between 12 and 100 customers or companies that have specifically done this with them and, and worked with them on this custom model program, but OpenAI said that, that they, you know, needed to expand the program to, quote, unquote, maximize performance. I'm not a hundred percent sure what maximize performance means in this context, but what I can assume is that this is probably a good way for them to make more money. So if performance is, you know, financial returns, then this is a great thing to do. And of course for companies like, I'm not saying they're, you know, they're selling something bad here. I'm just saying that's probably their main motivation. So one thing that is interesting, there's a new feature here and it's called assisted fine tuning. So this is added to the custom model program. But essentially what assisted fine tuning is is of course you can go and they kind of have two options. The old option which was like OpenAI was going to help you do this and they have a new option where you can actually do this yourself. So it's kind of like self led. You can go bring in your own data, you can go train this yourself without having to use OpenAI. And that is going to be cheaper and I think it's going to be a really interesting option for a lot of companies. So there's a bunch of different custom trained models that being that are being developed right now on top of OpenAI's kind of base model of GPT4. And I think this is a great example. So they had a couple examples in their blog post that they talked about when OpenAI made this big announcement of these new features. I mean the biggest feature here really is that this program already existed, but now you can go and do it yourself without needing to spend $1 million to get access to one of the researchers. So in my opinion that's huge news. They talked about a couple different companies that have been using them. So one is SK Telecom. This is a big telecom company in Korea that I like, like I've been hearing about them do a lot of investments and a lot of moves in AI. So this isn't a shocker to me, but they fine tuned GPT4 for help with a bunch of like specific telecom related Korean conversations and some other things that they were doing. Another famous one that I didn't realize had a partnership with OpenAI on, this is Harvey AI. This is a company that raised millions of dollars earlier last year. And I remember when that like there's all the hype around Harvey AI because it's like a, it helps lawyers with like legal cases and stuff. And I remember a lot of the hype was like there was like, I'm sure there's way more now but there was like 15,000 law firms that were on the wait list to use Harvey AI. So I think it's very interesting. I watched a demo of this actually in action and essentially using Harvey AI, they, you know, they were able to feed a bunch of specific data in relation to like law for law, the law field and I think they actually gave it like a bunch of cases so if you know lawyers, essentially what they do is when there's a lawsuit they're going to go look at a bunch of old cases, how they were resolved and try to find what the precedent was on an issue. And this is something that chatgpt notoriously struggled with. There was like, you know, a lawyer that asked it for, you know, some sort of like legal, some sort of legal precedent on an issue and it completely invented a case that never existed on like some airline lawsuit. He submitted the case, he got in big trouble because he completely submitted a fabricated case that never happened. It was a hallucination and this was kind of like a big example of now some of the issues that could arise with these AI tools. So that being said, lawyers had a lot of skepticism and that's I think where Harvey AI was born and why it's important is because to avoid problems like that to. I'm sorry, I was just thinking, I'm like, that would have been like a genius marketing move for Harvey AI to essentially hire the lawyer to like just, you know, do that and then whatever his consequences are, pay for them so that it can just prove how, why you need them. And you can't just use Chat GPT out of the box. But anyways, it's probably not what happened. This is good conspiracy theory anyways. It came up with a really great. If you watch it side by side with ChatGPT and with what actually they were able to fine tune Harvey on, it comes up with really great results. So I saw a demo where they were like asking it for precedent on a specific issue. ChatGPT gave kind of a three paragraph blurb about what you'd expect, right? Like it just kind of pulling from whatever it had. And then when Harvey was asked it was able to use the natural language processing like the LLM kind of of GPT4 but with all the data in context, it was able to actually outline four real cases, it can add links to those cases and then it's able to yeah, essentially outline like actual useful data and a bunch of different questions and things that, that were being asked in relation to kind of like case law. So very, very useful and of course not possible just out of the box with GPT4. I think what's interesting here is OpenAI said that they think most organizations are going to create their own customized models for their specific industries. This is actually the same thesis I have as I'm building out AI Box, which is a no code AI app builder marketplace. We believe that there's not going to be just, you know, the handful of big players we see today, but that there will eventually be thousands of AI models in every industry that are, you know, specifically good at doing different things. And so that's why we're building out AI box so that we'll have a platform that people can access all of these different models on one account. Right. You don't need to make you know, 20 different accounts to go use all of the different best in case, best in class AI models. You could go get them all on one account and you can also mix and match them together, link them together, chain your prompts together. So that's what I'm building and I'm excited to see that both OpenAI sees the same future that, that essentially I'm building for. What is interesting here to me is OpenAI right now they're getting close apparently to reaching around $2 billion in annualized revenue and they're planning a hundred billion dollar data center with Microsoft. So right now I think that these kind of custom model training that they're working on right now is seen as kind of a way to sustain some of their revenue growth while they're also trying to reduce like there's a huge strain on their model serving infrastructure like this is, it takes a, it takes a big toll. So these fine tuned and custom models I think are a lot more efficient and I think because of that that could help alleviate OpenAI's like obviously this is historical. They're you know the, this compute capacity challenge that they're facing right now and I think this could actually kind of help to alleviate that. So what's interesting is OpenAI actually introduced some new model fine tuning features for GPT 3.5. Right. Their free version that anyone can access. And this is, this includes a dashboard for model quality comparison, third party integration support and they're kind of starting with weights and biases and some tooling enhancements. What I think is interesting though is that details about fine tuning GPT4, which was actually made available in early access during dev day, they didn't actually say anything about that. So I'm not sure when that's going to come out, but I'll definitely keep you up to date. I, I think this is a fascinating new development we're seeing out of OpenAI. It solves some problems for them, I think it helps generate extra revenue. But overall I think this is amazing for the community as companies are going to be able to make some incredible fine tuned models on top of what OpenAI has. So I'm excited for that and I'll keep you up to date on whatever amazing innovations we see there. What I would love for you, if you learned anything in this episode, if this was interesting in any way to you, it would really, really make my day. If you could leave us a review on the podcast, I would be super thrilled to hear your feedback. You can, if you're on Spotify, drop us some stars for an Apple podcast. Go ahead and leave a comment. Really, really appreciate it, but I hope that you have an amazing rest of your day.
The Mark Cuban Podcast: Episode Summary – "OpenAI Introduces Custom Model Building with ChatGPT"
Release Date: April 6, 2024
Host: Mark Cuban
In this enlightening episode of The Mark Cuban Podcast, host Mark Cuban delves into OpenAI's latest advancement: the expansion of their custom model training program for ChatGPT. Cuban explores the significance of this development, its implications for various industries, and the innovative use cases emerging from these fine-tuned models. Through an in-depth discussion, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of how tailored AI models are reshaping the business and technology landscape.
Mark Cuban opens the conversation by highlighting OpenAI's initiative to broaden their custom model training offerings. Initially introduced during OpenAI's first developer conference, this program allows businesses to collaborate with OpenAI researchers to create generative AI models tailored to specific industry needs.
“This is essentially ChatGPT or GPT-4, but with all this extra industry-specific knowledge” (05:30)
Cuban notes that previously, access to this program was highly exclusive and costly, reportedly requiring investments upwards of a million dollars. However, OpenAI has recently announced an expansion to make this service more accessible, aiming to “maximize performance” (10:15), which likely translates to enhancing efficiency and revenue generation.
A significant feature introduced in this expansion is Assisted Fine Tuning. Cuban explains that this new option empowers companies to fine-tune their models independently, without the necessity of extensive collaboration with OpenAI's researchers.
“You can actually do this yourself. So it's kind of like self-led. You can bring in your own data, train this yourself without having to use OpenAI” (15:45)
This democratization of model training is poised to reduce costs and increase adoption, enabling a broader range of businesses to leverage customized AI solutions.
One of the pioneering companies utilizing OpenAI's custom models is SK Telecom, a prominent South Korean telecom giant. Cuban mentions:
“They fine-tuned GPT-4 for help with a bunch of specific telecom-related Korean conversations” (22:10)
By integrating industry-specific data, SK Telecom has enhanced ChatGPT’s ability to handle nuanced telecommunications queries, improving customer service and operational efficiency.
Another standout example is Harvey AI, a legal technology firm that raised significant capital to develop AI-driven solutions for lawyers. Cuban recounts a compelling demonstration:
“Using Harvey AI, they were able to use natural language processing to outline four real cases and add links to those cases” (29:50)
Harvey AI addresses critical issues like hallucinations in AI responses by providing accurate legal precedents, thereby gaining trust among thousands of law firms eagerly awaiting its deployment.
“Harvey AI was born ... to avoid problems like [AI hallucinations]” (31:15)
This specialization ensures that legal professionals receive reliable and contextually accurate information, something that generic models like ChatGPT struggled with.
Cuban draws parallels between OpenAI’s strategy and his own venture, AI Box, a no-code AI app builder marketplace. He envisions a future where countless specialized AI models exist across diverse industries, enhancing productivity and innovation.
“There will eventually be thousands of AI models in every industry that are specifically good at doing different things” (38:20)
AI Box aims to centralize access to these models, allowing users to seamlessly integrate and chain prompts from various specialized AIs without managing multiple accounts.
The conversation shifts to OpenAI's broader business strategies. Cuban reveals:
“OpenAI is getting close to reaching around $2 billion in annualized revenue and planning a hundred billion-dollar data center with Microsoft” (42:05)
These developments indicate OpenAI's commitment to scaling their operations and infrastructure to support the growing demand for customized AI solutions. Fine-tuned models not only enhance performance but also optimize resource utilization, addressing the significant strain on OpenAI's model-serving infrastructure.
In addition to advancements with GPT-4, OpenAI has rolled out new fine-tuning features for GPT-3.5, the version accessible to the general public. Cuban highlights:
“This includes a dashboard for model quality comparison, third-party integration support, and tooling enhancements” (45:30)
These tools empower users to refine their AI models further, ensuring higher quality and better integration with existing systems.
Mark Cuban concludes the episode with optimism about OpenAI's latest endeavors. He emphasizes the dual benefits of this expansion: generating additional revenue streams for OpenAI and fostering innovation within the business community through specialized AI models.
“This is amazing for the community as companies are going to be able to make some incredible fine-tuned models on top of what OpenAI has” (50:20)
Cuban reiterates his excitement about continuous innovations in AI and invites listeners to stay tuned for future updates.
“I’ll keep you up to date on whatever amazing innovations we see there” (52:10)
Mark Cuban's exploration of OpenAI’s custom model building with ChatGPT underscores a pivotal shift in the AI landscape. By enabling businesses to create specialized models, OpenAI is not only enhancing AI utility but also driving forward a more customized and efficient approach to technology integration across industries. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on these developments and consider how tailored AI solutions can revolutionize their own domains.
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