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If you’re a VP of Engineering in the age of AI, you’re facing challenges — and opportunities — never encountered before. AI’s impact on various sectors, including healthcare, finance, and agriculture, is rapidly expanding. To fully unlock the potential of AI, your company should:

• embrace the growing influence of open source software and communities;
• foster a culture of integrity, diversity and learning; and
• increase scalability and reduce costs.

Embrace the Growing Influence of Open Source

A significant portion of the world's digital infrastructure, from web servers to operating systems, now runs on open source solutions. But open source isn't just a tool — it's a community-driven powerhouse. Open source developers move faster because they can leverage the collective intelligence of the community. With more eyes on the problem, bugs are identified and resolved quicker, and innovative ideas are shared freely.

This collaborative approach accelerates progress and has led to the rapid advancement of AI technologies, especially in the Python world. Prominent open source projects like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and scikit-learn are the foundation of pivotal AI innovations including LangChain, LamaIndex and Large Language Models (LLMs).

The increasing reliance on open source AI frameworks means that the development of AI technologies is no longer restricted to specialized researchers and well-funded organizations. In the past, AI development required access to costly resources, making it a privilege reserved for a few. The availability of open source tools, libraries, and frameworks has democratized AI, bringing together a diverse community of developers, data scientists, and enthusiasts from around the world. Today, anybody with a passion for AI can actively participate and contribute to the development of cutting-edge algorithms.

Foster a Culture of Integrity, Diversity and Learning

Ethical AI isn't just a buzzword — it's the cornerstone of trustworthiness. How can you ensure your AI projects are built with integrity?

First, make sure to launch a thorough review process for your AI projects to spot and squash biases. Additionally, in AI, a wide array of perspectives isn't a luxury — it's a necessity. Creating teams as diverse as the problems you’re trying to solve will set you up for success. You should also consider hosting regular AI workshops about ethics and new tools to ensure everyone is on the same page and is keeping pace with the latest discoveries.

While bottom lines matter, AI's reach goes beyond dollars and cents. Encourage your teams to look at the bigger societal picture by working on IMPACTFUL projects to drive change. For example, at Six Feet Up, we recently created a ChatGPT-like application for an agricultural company that helps farmers advance agricultural practices (including challenges posed by climate change) and boost crop yields using aggregated data.

Increase Scalability and Reduce Costs

The GPU landscape is advancing at warp speed. While NVIDIA continues to dominate the GPU market for scientific use and developer mind share, as AI adoption continues to grow, new players are entering the GPU market and intensifying competition.

In the coming months, we can expect GPU prices to become more affordable as new players strive to capture their share of the market. This affordability will further boost accessibility for AI enthusiasts and researchers alike.

Pro Tip: Mix in-house with cloud-based GPU resources to reveal cost-saving or performance-boosting opportunities.

Speaking of cloud computing, this is not just another tech trend. Make sure to check out how your current AI setups measure against giants like Google Cloud or Amazon SageMaker. Making the cloud move can be the key to unlocking scalability and pinching those pennies.

Wrapping Up

AI is reshaping how we think and work. The power of AI is unlocked not just by the technology, but by the amazing community and values behind it. Open source is the heartbeat of this, showing how we can come together to innovate, bridge gaps and solve challenges using a holistic approach. With evolving GPU technologies and accessible cloud platforms, the toolkit is growing. But the true success lies in harnessing these tools with foresight, inclusivity, and responsibility.