The Future is Small Models, with Matei Zaharia, CTO of Databricks

This podcast episode explores the story of Databricks, a company that offers a cloud platform for data engineering, data warehousing, machine learning, the development of Dolly, a tool that allows users to build their own large language models, the capabilities and limitations of language models, the challenges and opportunities of using language models in real-world applications, and the potential impact of AI on unstructured data and the need for software engineers to upskill as ML and data engineers. Takeaways • Databricks offers a comprehensive data and ML platform in the cloud that allows businesses to leverage large datasets and machine learning to extract valuable insights. • Dolly is a tool developed by Databricks that enables users to easily create and train their own language models from their organization's data while maintaining control over their data. • Despite their limitations, language models have demonstrated impressive capabilities, such as excelling in instruction following tasks, showing potential for real-world applications. • Businesses need to consider data quality, supervision, and application design to develop effective language models for real-world use. • As AI continues to advance, software engineers need to upskill as ML engineers and data engineers to effectively utilize this transformative technology. • Long-term decision-making and research are essential to drive meaningful change and impact.