Why RAG Is Essential for Next-Gen AI Development
The success of RAG implementation often depends on a company’s willingness to
invest in curating and maintaining high-quality knowledge sources. Failure to do
this will severely impact RAG performance and may lead to LLM responses of much
poorer quality than expected. Another difficult task that companies frequently
run into is developing an effective retrieval mechanism. Dense retrieval, a
semantic search technique, and learned retrieval, which involves the system
recalling information, are two approaches that produce favorable results. Many
companies need help integrating RAG into existing AI systems and scaling RAG to
handle large knowledge bases. Potential solutions to these challenges include
efficient indexing and caching and implementing distributed architectures.
Another common problem is properly explaining the reasoning behind RAG-generated
responses, as they often involve information taken from multiple sources and
models. ... By integrating external knowledge sources, RAG helps LLMs prevail
over the limitations of a parametric memory and dramatically reduce
hallucinations. As Douwe Keila, an author of the original paper about RAG, said
in a recent interview
A global assessment of third-party connection tampering
To be clear, there are many reasons a third party might tamper with a
connection. Enterprises may tamper with outbound connections from their networks
to prevent users from interacting with spam or phishing sites. ISPs may use
connection tampering to enforce court or regulatory orders that demand website
blocking to address copyright infringement or for other legal purposes.
Governments may mandate large-scale censorship and information control. Despite
the fact that everyone knows it happens, no other large operation has previously
looked at the use of connection tampering at scale and across jurisdictions. We
think that creates a notable gap in understanding what is happening in the
Internet ecosystem, and that shedding light on these practices is important for
transparency and the long-term health of the Internet. ... Ultimately,
connection tampering is possible only by accident – an unintended side effect of
protocol design. On the Internet, the most common identity is the domain name.
In a communication on the Internet, the domain name is most often transmitted in
the “server name indication (SNI)” field in TLS – exposed in cleartext for all
to see.
The human brain deciphered and the first neural map created
The formation of such a neural map was made possible with the help of several
technologies. First, as mentioned earlier, the employment of electron microscopy
enabled the researchers to obtain images of the brain tissue at a scale that
could capture details of synapses. Such papers provided the necessary level of
detail to reveal how neurons are connected and can communicate with other
neurons. Second, the massive volume of data produced by the imaging process
needed high computing capability and machine learning to parse and analyze. It
was also claimed that the company’s experience in AI and data processing was
helpful in the correct positioning of the 2D images into a 3D one and in the
proper segmentation of many of the parts of the brain tissue. Last of all, the
decision to share the neural map as an open-access database has extended the
potential for future research and cooperation in the sphere of neuroscience. The
development of this neural map has excellent potential for neuroscience and
other disciplines. In neuropharmacology, the map offers an opportunity to gain a
substantial amount of information about how neurons are wired within the brain
and how certain diseases, such as schizophrenia or autism, occur.
InfoQ AI, ML and Data Engineering Trends Report - September 2024
The AI-enabled agent programs are another area that’s seeing a lot of
innovation. Autonomous agents and GenAI-enabled virtual assistants are coming up
in different places to help software developers become more productive.
AI-assisted programs can enable individual team members to increase productivity
or collaborate with each other. Gihub’s Copilot, Microsoft Teams’ Copilot,
DevinAI, Mistral’s Codestral, and JetBrains’ local code completion are some
examples of AI agents. GitHub also recently announced its GitHub Models product
to enable the large community of developers to become AI engineers and build
with industry-leading AI models. ... With the emergence of multi-model language
models like GPT-4o, privacy and security when handling non-textual data like
videos become even more critical in the overall machine learning pipelines and
DevOps processes. The podcast panelist’s AI safety and security recommendations
are to have a comprehensive lineage and mapping of where your data is going.
Train your employees to have proper data privacy security practices, and also
make the secure path the path of least resistance for them so everyone within
your organization easily adopts it.
Does it matter what kind of hard drive you use in a NAS?
Consumer drives aren't designed for heavier workloads, nor are they built with
multiple units running adjacent to one another. This can cause issues with
vibrations, particularly for 3.5-inch mechanical drives. Firmware and
endurance are other concerns since the drives themselves won't be built with
RAID and NAS in mind. Combining the two with heavier workloads through
multiple user accounts and clients could lead to easier drive failure. These
drives will be cheaper than their NAS equivalents, however, and no drive is
immune to failure. You could see consumer drives outlive NAS drives inside the
same enclosure. ... Shingled magnetic recording (SMR) and conventional
magnetic recording (CMR) are two types of storage technologies used for
storing data on spinning platters inside an HDD. CRM uses concentric circles
(or tracks) for saving data, which are segmented into sectors. Everything is
recorded linearly with each sector being written and read independently,
allowing specific sectors to be rewritten without affecting any other sector
on the drive. SMR is a newer technology that takes the same concentric circles
approach but instead overlaps the tracks to bolster storage capacity but
performance suffers alongside reliability.
What’s next in AI and HPC for IT leaders in digital infrastructure?
The AI nirvana for enterprises? In 2024, we'll see enterprises build
ChatGPT-like GenAI systems for their own internal information resources. Since
many companies' data resides in silos, there is a real opportunity to manage
AI demand, build AI expertise, and cross-functional department collaboration.
This access to data comes with an existential security risk that could strike
at the heart of a company: intellectual property. That’s why in 2024,
forward-thinking enterprises will use AI for robust data security and privacy
measures to ensure intellectual property doesn’t get exposed on the public
internet. They will also shrink the threat landscape by honing in on internal
security risks. This includes the development of internal regulations to
ensure sensitive information isn't leaked to non-privileged internal groups
and individuals. ... At this early stage of AI initiatives, enterprises are
dependent on technology providers and their partners to advise and support the
global roll-out of AI initiatives. In Asia Pacific, it’s a race to build,
deploy, and subsequently train the right AI clusters. Since a prime use case
is cybersecurity threat detection, working with the respective cybersecurity
technology providers is key.
Red Hat unleashes Enterprise Linux AI - and it's truly useful
In a statement, Joe Fernandes, Red Hat's Foundation Model Platform vice
president, said, "RHEL AI provides the ability for domain experts, not just
data scientists, to contribute to a built-for-purpose gen AI model across the
hybrid cloud while also enabling IT organizations to scale these models for
production through Red Hat OpenShift AI." RHEL AI isn't tied to any single
environment. It's designed to run wherever your data lives -- whether it be
on-premise, at the edge, or in the public cloud. This flexibility is crucial
when implementing AI strategies without completely overhauling your existing
infrastructure. The program is now available on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and
IBM Cloud as a "bring your own (BYO)" subscription offering. In the next few
months, it will be available as a service on AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP),
IBM Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Dell Technologies has announced a
collaboration to bring RHEL AI to Dell PowerEdge servers. This partnership
aims to simplify AI deployment by providing validated hardware solutions,
including NVIDIA accelerated computing, optimized for RHEL AI.
Quantum computing is coming – are you ready?
The good thing is that awareness of the challenge is increasing. Some
verticals, such as finance, have it absolutely top of mind with some already
having quantum safe algorithms in production. Likewise, some manufacturing
sectors are examining the impact, given the implications of having to upgrade
embedded or IoT devices. And, of course, medical devices offer a particularly
heightened security and trust challenge. "I think for these device
manufacturers, they had a moment where they realized they can't go ahead and
push the devices out as fast as they are without thinking about proper
security," says Hojjati. But not everyone is on top of the problem. Which is
why DigiCert is backing Quantum Readiness Day on September 26, to coincide
with the expected finalization of the new algorithms by NIST. The worldwide
event will bring together experts, both in how to break encryption and how to
implement the upcoming post quantum algorithms, helping you make sure you're
ahead of the problem. As Hojjati says, whether we've reached Q Day or not,
"This is real, this is here, the standards have been released. ..."
How cyberattacks on offshore wind farms could create huge problems
Successful cyberattacks could lower public trust in wind energy and other
renewables, the report from the Alan Turing Institute says. The authors add
that artificial intelligence (AI) could help boost the resilience of offshore
wind farms to cyber threats. However, government and industry need to act
fast. The fact that offshore wind installations are relatively remote makes
them particularly vulnerable to disruption. Land turbines can have nearby
offices, so getting someone to visit the site is much easier than at sea.
Offshore turbines tend to require remote monitoring and special technology for
long distance communication. These more complicated solutions mean that things
can go wrong more easily. ... Most cyberattacks are financially motivated,
such as the ransomware attacks that have targeted the NHS in recent years.
These typically block the users’ access to their computer data until a payment
is made to the hackers. But critical infrastructure such as energy
installations are also exposed. There may be various motivations for launching
cyberattacks against them. One important possibility is that of a hostile
state that wants to disrupt the UK’s energy supply – and perhaps also
undermine public confidence in it.
Data Skills Gap Is Hampering Productivity; Is Upskilling the Answer?
"A well-crafted data strategy will highlight where specific skills need to be
developed to achieve business objectives," said Michael Curry, president of
data modernization at Rocket Software. He explained that since a data strategy
typically involves both risk mitigation and value realization, it's important
to consider skill gaps on both sides. Kjell Carlsson, head of AI strategy at
Domino Data Labs, said better data prep, analysis, and visualization skills
would help organizations become more data-driven and make better decisions
that would significantly improve growth and curtail waste. "Imbuing your
workforce with better prompt engineering skills will help them code, research,
and write vastly more efficiently," he said. "A well-crafted data strategy
will highlight where specific skills need to be developed to achieve business
objectives," said Michael Curry, president of data modernization at Rocket
Software. He explained that since a data strategy typically involves both risk
mitigation and value realization, it's important to consider skill gaps on
both sides. ... "Imbuing your workforce with better prompt engineering skills
will help them code, research, and write vastly more efficiently," he said.
Quote for the day:
"Leadership should be born out of the
understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it." --
Marian Anderson
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