Submission + - Small AI Models Gain Traction Around the World
locater16 writes: From IEEE Spectrum:
"The RxScanner is a handheld spectrometer that scans a pill with infrared light, then sends the item’s molecular profile to an AI model equipped with a pharmaceutical database. In seconds, the AI identifies the medication from its molecular profile—or reports that it’s phony.
Pharmacies were using the system in more than a dozen countries, including Ghana, Kenya, Myanmar, and Alonge’s native Nigeria. But that morning in South Africa, it didn’t work. “I was shocked,” Alonge says... So Alonge immediately asked his engineers to shrink the AI model down to a smaller, low-power, unconnected version that could run entirely on his Android phone. They produced it 2 hours later, and that saved the demo.
More importantly, the work birthed a new version of his device, which can authenticate a pill in places without broadband, computers, or even reliable electricity. It also turned Alonge into an advocate for this kind of “small AI.”..."
The article goes on to detail other immediately useful "small" AI applications without any subscription or billion dollar data centers needed.
"The RxScanner is a handheld spectrometer that scans a pill with infrared light, then sends the item’s molecular profile to an AI model equipped with a pharmaceutical database. In seconds, the AI identifies the medication from its molecular profile—or reports that it’s phony.
Pharmacies were using the system in more than a dozen countries, including Ghana, Kenya, Myanmar, and Alonge’s native Nigeria. But that morning in South Africa, it didn’t work. “I was shocked,” Alonge says... So Alonge immediately asked his engineers to shrink the AI model down to a smaller, low-power, unconnected version that could run entirely on his Android phone. They produced it 2 hours later, and that saved the demo.
More importantly, the work birthed a new version of his device, which can authenticate a pill in places without broadband, computers, or even reliable electricity. It also turned Alonge into an advocate for this kind of “small AI.”..."
The article goes on to detail other immediately useful "small" AI applications without any subscription or billion dollar data centers needed.
