Google's Generative AI Platform, Vertex AI, Now Open to All

Google has recently announced the general availability of its generative AI services based on Vertex AI, a machine learning platform as a service (ML PaaS) offering from Google Cloud. This move signifies a significant step forward in making generative AI accessible to everyone, from enterprises to individual developers.

Vertex AI: A Comprehensive AI Platform

Vertex AI offers a full suite of tools that help developers tune, launch, and manage models in production. The platform is designed to integrate seamlessly with applications, enabling organizations to leverage the platform’s capabilities effectively.

With the latest update, developers can utilize several new tools and models. These include the word completion model driven by PaLM 2, the Embeddings API for text, and other foundational models in the Model Garden. Developers can also leverage the Generative AI Studio’s tools to fine-tune and deploy customized models.

Google assures that enterprise-grade data governance, security, and safety features are built into the Vertex AI platform. This gives customers confidence in consuming the foundation models, customizing them with their own data, and building generative AI applications.

A Wealth of Models and Tools

The Model Garden provides access to over 60 models from Google and its partners, with plans to add more in the future. The Codey model for code completion, code generation, and chat, announced at the Google I/O conference, is also now available for public preview.

Vertex AI was the first enterprise-grade ML PaaS to offer Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF). This service uses human feedback to improve the accuracy of fine-tuned models trained with custom datasets. With Generative AI Studio becoming generally available, customers can use a wider range of tools, such as multiple tuning methods for large models, to build custom generative AI applications faster.

Real-World Applications and Success Stories

Several companies are already leveraging Vertex AI’s capabilities. GA Telesis is using the PaLM model on Vertex AI to build a data extraction system that uses email orders to create quotes for customers automatically. GitLab’s ‘Explain this Vulnerability’ feature uses the Codey model on Vertex AI, providing developers with a natural language description of code flaws and suggestions for how to fix them. Canva, the online design tool, uses Google Cloud’s generative AI to translate languages, and is exploring ways to use PaLM technology to turn short video clips into longer, more engaging stories.

Conclusion

The general availability of Google’s generative AI platform, Vertex AI, marks a significant milestone in the democratization of AI. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools and models that can be customized and deployed in various applications, making it a valuable resource for developers and organizations alike. As more companies begin to leverage these capabilities, we can expect to see a surge in innovative, AI-driven applications that can transform industries and redefine the way we interact with technology.