
Hugging Face’s CEO on why companies are done renting their AI
Quick Answer
Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue highlights the shift from proprietary AI APIs to open-source models as companies face rising costs.
Quick Take
Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue highlights the shift from proprietary AI APIs to open-source models as companies face rising costs. With half of the Fortune 500 now utilizing open models, concerns grow over potential monopolization by a few large firms following Anthropic's halted Fable release.
Key Points
- Hugging Face has become a key platform for sharing AI models and datasets.
- Approximately 50% of Fortune 500 companies are now using open-source models.
- Rising costs of proprietary APIs drive companies towards open-source alternatives.
- Concerns arise over potential control by a few large companies in the AI space.
- The discussion follows Anthropic's recent decision to halt the Fable release.
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Open source AI is booming, according to Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue. The company has grown into something like a GitHub for AI in recent years, where AI builders can share and download open models and datasets, now used by roughly half the Fortune 500. Delangue has seen the same story play out again and again: companies start out on frontier APIs, but as they scale, the costs push them towards open source models.
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan talked to Delangue about why the open vs closed source fight matters in the wake of Anthropic’s halted Fable release, and why he’s worried about the possibility that a handful of big companies could end up controlling everything.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
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Theresa Loconsolo is an audio producer at TechCrunch focusing on Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, she was one of 2 producers at a four-station conglomerate where she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered live performances and interviews from guests like lovelytheband. Theresa is based in New Jersey and holds a bachelors degree in Communication from Monmouth University.
You can contact or verify outreach from Theresa by emailing theresa.loconsolo@techcrunch.com.
— Originally published at techcrunch.com
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