Israeli startup offers artificial intelligence software to bring writing to life
AI21 Labs, an Israeli startup specializing in automatic language processing (better known as NLP), is trying to “flavor” your writing by launching a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based generative feature.
Rather than trying to replace the typewriter with technology that enables computers to learn, AI21 Labs’ new Wordtune Spices feature is designed to play a co-authoring role to improve and enrich any written composition with 12 practical tools ranging from statistics. support argument for wedding speech jokes.
“Our mission at AI21 Labs is to transform the way people read and write using artificial intelligence, while focusing on empowering, not removing or replacing, the writer,” said Ori Goshen, co-founder and CEO of AI21 Labs. “Spices are tools that combine the best that man and machine have to offer, working with writers to inspire better, more effective and more engaging writing, while ensuring that writers have the necessary space and freedom to express their thoughts, ideas and opinions is a set. information as they can. »
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NLP is the ability of a computer program to understand human language through speech and text.
After the recent media frenzy over ChatGPT, a fine-tuned language model that uses reinforcement learning (an Intel company) to create human-like texts, as well as other startups like AI21 Labs, co-founded by Mobileye co-founder Prof. Amnon Shashua (an Intel company) is quickly outpacing competing AI models. they found
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Founded in 2017 by Shashua, Goshen and Professor Yoav Shoham, AI21 Labs has created a software platform where developers can build text-based applications such as recommendation engines, chatbots and virtual assistants. The company launched a text simplification tool called Wordtune, a Google Chrome extension that helps customers improve or optimize content, and Wordtune Read, a tool that analyzes and summarizes documents. According to the company, Wordtune has several million users and hundreds of thousands of paid users.
For students writing term papers, marketers working on blog posts, or partners who need to report, Spices offers suggestions from text entered into Wordtune. To use the function, the writer must press the function button, which brings up a box with a menu list of 12 options in the text, including explain, give an example, counterargument, statistic, simile, or joke. The pointers provide in-text suggestions, and the author can choose to accept them or click through for additional suggestions.
Israeli startup AI21 Labs launches Wordtune Spices to help users enrich their text. (Credit: Courtesy)
According to the startup, what makes it different from ChatGPT is the integration of Spices into the writing process and the fact that users have control over the text they write.
“Almost every AI-based model (including the use of ChatGPT) gives users little control over the end result. The user must learn to write “good instructions” (that is, learn to talk to the system) so that only then can they get a complete article that does not reflect their original opinion,” says Scientific Director Dr. Yoav Levine explained. AI21 Laboratories.
“We wanted to create software that would improve the writing process itself and allow users to create content that truly reflects their unique voice and style,” Levine said.
According to AI21 Labs, another element that differentiates Spices from competing AI models is the fact that Spices offers content sources that contain statistics or historical facts, and provides a link to the source from which the information was taken. This can be a news article, a Wikipedia article, or any other online source.
“This solves a huge problem facing the big language models available today (including ChatGPT) and will help increase user confidence in AI offerings,” Levine said.
Answering the question about the accuracy of the information, Levine noted that the responsibility is shared with the creator of the text.
“We don’t want to be truth tellers,” Levine said. “We think it’s up to the author to trust the source or not.”
“That’s why we provide them with a direct link to the site where the information came from so they can check it as they type and make an informed decision,” he added.
To limit abuse of the language model to create toxic or biased content, AI21 Labs said it is working on smart filters and other measures to prevent any such attempts. trolling.
“It’s not flawless, among other reasons, because sometimes it’s hard to develop a model to make sensitive decisions that even people struggle with,” Levine said. “This is one of the reasons why we believe that artificial intelligence will not replace humans in writing tasks, but rather be a useful tool in the process. »
In the future, AI21 Labs plans to add Spices options specific to certain verticals, such as legal or medical professionals, as well as expand the feature’s availability to all applications where users type in a web browser, including email and WhatsApp.
The growing buzz around generative AI helped AI21 Labs raise funds. In July, the startup raised $64 million in a Series B funding round led by UK-based Ahren Innovation Capital Fund, with participation from Shashua, Pitango Ventures, Tel Aviv-based TPY Capital and Veritas founder Mark Leslie, an American billionaire and entrepreneur. Technologies.
