HOW CLOUD EGRESS FEES WILL CHALLENGE THE FUTURE OF AI

By: John Engates, Field Chief Technology Officer, Cloudflare

AI is on the verge of radically transforming entire sectors, including technology, healthcare, and finance, making it possible to solve problems that once seemed insurmountable.

However, fully tapping into AI's potential necessitates access to plentiful training data and significant computing power, leading to challenges in storage and data management. Unsurprisingly, the cloud has become the go-to solution for storing and processing data for AI applications.

CLOUD STORAGE: AI'S FOUNDATION

Cloud storage offers a flexible, scalable, and cost-efficient solution for handling vast amounts of data, making it particularly useful for AI applications. It serves as the repository for training data that allows machine learning models to make predictions or decisions based on new inputs.

Take, for example, a bank developing an AI-powered fraud detection system. The machine learning model needs a wealth of transaction data from customers, encompassing amounts, times, locations, and types. As data volumes grow, storage and management become increasingly complex.

Leveraging a cloud storage provider enables the bank to store and analyze its transaction data efficiently and affordably, adding new data as required without investing in or maintaining its own physical infrastructure. Many companies will choose to employ multiple clouds for AI to reap various benefits, such as cost optimization, access to specialized resources, and compliance with regulatory requirements.

One strategy to harness these advantages could be as straightforward as training models on one cloud platform while running inference on another.

With most companies already depending on multiple cloud providers, adopting a multi-cloud strategy for storage management is poised to play a crucial role in addressing the mounting demands of AI-driven progress.

EGRESS FEES: THE MULTI-CLOUD STORAGE HURDLE

Cloud storage offers numerous advantages but also presents challenges, with cost being a primary concern. A key expense related to cloud storage is egress (or data transfer) fees, imposed by cloud service providers when data is transferred out of their networks.

Egress fees can add up quickly, especially for organizations utilizing multiple cloud providers and transferring substantial data volumes. And most recently, generative AI companies are facing hefty fees for moving data across regions, even within a single cloud provider, due to the scarcity of available computing power.

To minimize egress fees, cloud providers encourage customers to store data and train AI models solely within their cloud. While this may seem positive in theory, the reality is that committing to a single provider may be difficult for some companies due to cost and resource availability. Most businesses adopt multi-cloud strategies in order to maximize their growth.

A Future With Zero Egress Fees

But what if cloud storage providers removed egress fees from the equation?

A future free of these fees would empower companies to store and analyze data across multiple clouds without incurring extra costs, enabling them to use the best available tools. This would allow organizations to fully harness AI's potential without concerns about rising expenses.

A zero egress fee cloud storage model would result in significant cost savings for organizations, freeing up resources for other essential business areas. It also eliminates the risk associated with relying on a single cloud provider, ensuring greater reliability and better protection against outages.

Perhaps most importantly, a world devoid of egress fees would fuel innovation. The flexibility offered by a multi-cloud architecture allows businesses to effortlessly select the most suitable provider for specific tasks.

This enables organizations to focus on experimentation and innovation, leveraging AI and other cutting-edge technologies without being hindered by costs or limitations.

UNLEASHING AI’S FULL POTENTIAL

AI stands poised to revolutionize industries and society as a whole. Cloud computing and storage play a crucial role in AI, particularly in storing and managing ever-expanding training data, but egress fees can hinder AI's growth by acting as a barrier to innovation. To create a brighter future for AI in the cloud, eliminating egress fees is essential.

By adopting an approach to cloud storage that removes egress fees, organizations can harness AI's full potential without concerns about the costs associated with transferring data between clouds. A future without egress fees represents a significant advancement in multi-cloud storage, laying the foundation for a more efficient, innovative, and promising future in AI and data management.

PROVEN ROBOTICS INTEGRATES CHATGPT WITH PEPPER HUMANOID ROBOT – THE FIRST IMPLEMENTATION OF ITS KIND IN THE REGION

PROVEN Robotics, a leading provider of robotic solutions worldwide, announced the successful integration of natural language artificial intelligence (AI) technology, ChatGPT, into its cutting edge humanoid robot, Pepper. A regional first, the significant milestone offers several key benefits and solidifies the company’s position as an industry pioneer.

PROVEN Robotics also announced a partnership with one of the largest chemical manufacturing companies in the world - the deal saw the Saudi-based chemicals specialist leverage PROVEN Robotics’ advanced robotics solutions at two of its events in the Kingdom.

Since its arrival in the market, ChatGPT has stirred far-reaching debates and has already made a significant impact due to its potential to profoundly impact a number of sectors, and revolutionize how people view and interact with AI. The integration of ChatGPT with Pepper demonstrated the innovative spirit of the PROVEN Robotics development team, and simultaneously presented an incredible opportunity to demonstrate the ground-breaking capabilities of both ChatGPT and Pepper.

“The combination of an advanced AI language system with our highly effective Pepper robotics platform provides a unique proposition for a wide range of applications, from customer service and entertainment to education and research.

The ability to seamlessly integrate advanced language capabilities with the physical agility of Pepper has exciting potential, and reinforces PROVEN Robotics’ standing as a leader in the industry,” explained Mohammed Aldousari, Regional Robotics Lead at PROVEN Robotics.

By leveraging the advanced language capabilities of ChatGPT, the PROVEN Robotics development team was able to overcome some of the robot’s limitations and took its conversational abilities to new heights. The integration of the two technologies signifies a tangible step forward in the evolution of humanoid robotics, while showcasing the innovative spirit of the team at PROVEN Robotics.

The integration of ChatGPT in Pepper offers several significant benefits including: improving Pepper’s natural language understanding, enabling the robot to understand a wide range of human inputs and to respond naturally; encouraging flexible and personalized communication, so the robot can engage in open-ended conversations with users in an array of environments; boosting Pepper’s entertainment capabilities by enabling it to create interactive games, stories and other forms of entertainment; growing the educational applications that Pepper offers thus making it a more effective tool for learning, while also enhancing the assistive capabilities Pepper features.

The latter enables Pepper to better assist people with disabilities by providing more human-like responses, and enabling it to understand more specific requirements.

PROVEN Robotics’ industry leading solutions was recently demonstrated through its partnership with a prominent chemical manufacturing company. The client leveraged PROVEN Robotics’ cutting-edge solutions across two of its key events, thus providing its employees and customers with rich experiences.

At the first event, PROVEN Robotics unveiled its Pepper, Bellabot, KettyBot, and Double 3 robots to the client’s employees. Pepper welcomed them and engaged in quiz sessions, while the other three robots distributed gifts, food, and beverages. The robots were tailored specifically to meet the needs of the client and its visitors and increased visitors’ awareness of the company.

The second event was a Year End Meeting event for the client’s VPs around the globe. This event saw Pepper engage with attendees in a friendly manner and effectively fielded many queries. In this instance, the multipurpose KettyBot displayed the organization’s details on its large display, while BellaBot delivered food and beverages to guests.

“Our partnership with one of the largest chemical manufacturing companies in the world, which saw the rollout of our advanced robotics solutions at their key events in Riyadh, Jubail and Yanbu, proved without a shadow of a doubt that our robots could contribute to significant events.

We thank our client for their trust and cooperation and look forward to building a productive partnership going forward. We are yet to leverage the full potential of robots and what they can bring to communities and businesses, however this was a fantastic proving ground and a stepping stone to a brighter future,” concluded Aldousari.