What’s everyone’s opinion on the big names in the data, AI, ML space? (Msft, AWS, and Google included. Since they all have similar platforms within each cloud option)
Who’s doing it right? What’s lacking? How do they stack up. Generally curious.
6 replies (most recent on top)
"All in all, very fast moving market with tons of potential. As someone working in this space in SAS, I'm really, desperately hoping that SAS can capitalize on at least some of this craze."
I'm not sure that SAS was ever a leader/ahead of the curve in any technology except MVA. No reason to expect that to change now.
Posting because I work in the AI/ML space, this post primarily focuses on the innovation side of things.
IMO, Microsoft has definitely taken the helm with their partnership with OpenAI. Purely from that alone I believe they outclass current competitors (although there are some fast risers). Now, whether or not Microsoft is scaling well to address the demand for OpenAI is a different story (hint: they are not. Partly due to the insane GPU demand). But with how hot this area is I'd be surprised if they didn't address these growing pains quickly.
Google is the biggest faller. With the recent debacle of Gemini paired with OpenAI's continuous bleeding edge innovation (just look at their Sora announcement), Google's relevance in this space is lagging far behind. Quite a surprise given they were the first to it with DeepMind, the Attention paper, TensorFlow, etc. Just seems like an inability on Google's leadership team to make bold maneuvers quickly enough.
Meta has been a solid player in the open source space, continuously adding value (Llama, FAISS, PyTorch). Can't speak on to them too much other than that.
Other notable fast moving startups are making a name for themselves: the biggest I can think of is Anthropic, and their models are seriously impressive, up to par with OpenAI's GPT I'd say (although at much steeper price point). There have been other AI-peripheral companies making a niche for themselves in this space as well (think LangChain).
All in all, very fast moving market with tons of potential. As someone working in this space in SAS, I'm really, desperately hoping that SAS can capitalize on at least some of this craze.
I have no expertise in AI, but Micro$oft has invested $13 Billion in OpenAI. So they certainly think that gives them an edge, and I think they are right.
Companies the size of Google or Amazon have the resources to catch up. A few AI startups will have value sufficient to compete or be acquired.
Other companies should do as SAS has done: get the technology by partnering with someone who has it:
https://www.sas.com/en_th/news/press-releases/2023/september/generative_ai_announcement_sas_explore.html
SAS definitely is no longer on that list.
It's been a long time since Gartner described SAS as the "800 pound gorilla" in the analytics market. I clearly remember that. Oh how SAS loved that quote, and used it over and over again! ...until it became really obvious it was no longer true.
Makes sense. PowerBI is included in Microsoft365 at certain enterprise levels. Why pay for something extra when you’ve already got a tool included in a bundle.
From what I understand, Power BI skills are in demand. No word on VA.