The success of large language models like GPT has sparked a frenzy of developers eager to make AI-powered applications. However, building AI services can be tricky, especially due to the shortage of skilled developers to meet the rising demand these days.
Meet Chaoyu Yang and BentoML
Chaoyu Yang, an early software engineer at Databricks, is part of a team that has built the AI development framework BentoML. With its recent seed financing round, BentoML aims to provide a high-level API that abstracts away the details of the infrastructure needed for running AI models on the cloud.
The Challenges of Building AI Services
Yang explained in an interview with TechCrunch that today’s AI services are often built on multiple machine learning models, making their management and operation complicated. Many programmers entering the fray are coming from a full-stack or application development background, meaning they often lack the skills to build the required AI infrastructure, resulting in a prolonged development process.
A Demo AI App: Visual ChatGPT
For example, a demo AI app like Microsoft’s Visual ChatGPT, an upgrade to the chatbot that allows it to produce responses from both text and image prompts, can take at least three to six months to make it production-ready. Yang emphasized that this is not an uncommon experience for developers working on AI projects.
The Gap between Tech Giants and Smaller Businesses
While tech behemoths like Microsoft enjoy the financial prowess and human capital to train AI models and put them to use in the real world, smaller businesses are collecting valuable data that can benefit tremendously from AI. However, they lack the resources to build the infrastructure for development.
BentoML: Smoothing the Path for Developing AI Services
BentoML belongs to a camp of tools like SageMaker that wants to smooth the path for developing AI services. Specifically, BentoML is targeting data scientists who train AI models, DevOp engineers who manage their lifecycle, and developers who actually build applications on top of the models.
A Construction Tool Kit for Building AI Applications
BentoML provides a high-level API that abstracts away the details of the infrastructure needed for running AI models on the cloud. This allows developers to focus on building their AI applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
From Open Source to SaaS: BentoML’s Business Model
BentoML is open source, which means that developers can use and contribute to the framework without incurring any costs. However, BentoML also offers a paid version of its service as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering.
The Future of AI Development: Democratizing Access
BentoML’s mission is to democratize access to AI development by providing a user-friendly and accessible framework for building AI applications. With its recent seed financing round, BentoML is well-positioned to become a leading player in the AI development landscape.
Conclusion
The rise of large language models has sparked a frenzy of developers eager to make AI-powered applications. However, building AI services can be tricky, especially due to the shortage of skilled developers to meet the rising demand. BentoML’s mission to democratize access to AI development by providing a high-level API that abstracts away the details of the infrastructure needed for running AI models on the cloud is an important step towards making AI more accessible to developers.
Recommendations
- If you’re interested in building AI applications, consider using BentoML as your go-to framework.
- Developers who are new to AI development can benefit from BentoML’s user-friendly interface and open-source nature.
- Businesses that want to leverage the power of AI but lack the resources to build their own infrastructure should consider using BentoML’s SaaS offering.
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About the Author
Rita Liao is a reporter at TechCrunch, covering Asia’s tech scene with a special interest in Chinese companies going global and web3 projects with real-world applications. Follow her on Twitter @ritacyliao for the latest updates.
