Models, Models Everywhere: Not a Doubt in Sight
October 7, 2021
In 2017, computers became better at generating and understanding human language when Google researchers designed the natural language AI, Transformers. Fast Company explains why natural language is important in the article, “Ex-Googlers Raise $40 Million To Democratize Natural-Language AI.”
Three of the Transformers AI researchers, Nick Frosst, Ivan Zhang, and Aidan Gomez, began their own startup, Cohere, and raised $40 million in funding. They started Cohere to commercialize and further develop the natural language processing AI. The Cohere plan to address biases accidentally programmed into AI when they are taught with bad datasets. These biases are unfavorable to ethnic minorities and women, basically anyone who is not a white man.
Transformers AI models need huge amounts of data in order to be programmed, but only organizations with supercomputers have the necessary high quality natural language models. The Cohere team want to democratize NLP models and make them available to organizations that otherwise would not have the funds for the technology. Cohere wants to guarantee its NLP AI will not contain any biases:
“To address the risks, Cohere’s engineers have implemented quality control tests to look for any issues with the model before release, and the company continues to monitor its models after launch as well. In addition, Gomez says Cohere will publish “data statements,” which will including information about training data, its limitations, and any risks—a concept first popularized by Gebru. Cohere has also established an external Responsibility Council that will help oversee the safe application of the company’s AI. The company declined to share who is part of the council.”
Frosst, Zhang, and Gomez embrace the technological biases in AI, but instead of reacting poorly, like Google did with Timnit Gehru, they admit the mistake and are actively creating a solution. They also made their own company, will probably earn handsome salaries, and help shape future AI.
Whitney Grace, October 6, 2021
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