Monetizing Generative AI: Smaller Models Target Wider Accessibility

While Microsoft, Google and OpenAI are advancing work on large language models (LLMs) that power mainstream generative AI (artificial intelligence), a few others are gearing up to deploy small AI models, which are likely to reach the consumers sometime in 2024.

- Shouvik Das

Industry insiders see this as a natural progression to monetizing generative AI technologies, making them more widely accessible, instead of targeting only enterprises through very expensive cloud platforms.

For instance, on 23 February, Qualcomm demonstrated an image-generating AI model running on a device, with Stable Diffusion showcased on an Android smartphone. Subsequently, on 18 July, Meta and Qualcomm jointly introduced Llama-2, an LLM which will be available for real-world use by next year.

Experts said this approach is a way forward to address concerns over costs, environmental impact and practicality, and would pave the way for further adoption of AI technology.