Extract from Mike Gaudet’s article “Next Stop on the AI Train: eDiscovery”
Introduction
Most everyone with whom we speak in the legal profession believes Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform how we work and the solutions we offer for our clients. We often hear: “If you’re not on board the AI train, you will get run over by it.” But which way is that train heading and how do we ride it to the right destination?”
The Grand Conductors
Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have thus far played the role of conductors in the world’s AI journey. Simply put, very few companies have the resources to build out technology on the scale required to power machinery. Each of these companies have invested billions of dollars in the last year into Generative AI (GenAI) developers like OpenAI and Anthropic. The developers, in turn, have committed significant funds toward their investors’ cloud platforms, which power the AI’s operation.
Providing AI services, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is also expensive. It takes intensive hardware, networking resources, and a skilled team of technologists to power the engine. It is estimated to cost up to $21 million per month to keep ChatGPT online. As OpenAI CEO Sam Altman puts it, “the compute costs are eye-watering.”
