Ask an AI expert about the field’s most transformative developments in recent years, and chances are large language models will come up.

Over the past five years in particular, these tools have expanded machine learning’s influence across industries, from analyzing legal documents to summarizing scientific papers to generating predictive text.

• The models underpin services used by billions of people every day, like Google Search and AutoComplete, and one such system was recently—and controversially—deemed sentient by a Google engineer.
• They’ve also received criticism from experts in the field, who say they’re overused, under-vetted, and prone to propagating human biases far and wide.

Until recently...These models have largely been developed and operated by tech giants. But now, a new class of startups are looking to control their own NLP destinies—in some cases, even building and operating their own LLMs. And they’re doing it with the help of hundreds of millions of venture dollars and dozens of high-profile Big Tech hires. Just a few examples:

• Cohere, a Toronto-based NLP startup, has raised over $170 million total, and since February, it has brought on AI experts from Apple, Deepmind, and Meta.
• In the past year, leaders at Google and Meta have moved to Hugging Face, a NYC-based open-source ML startup that’s raised more than $160 million to date.
• Adept, an NLP startup that debuted in April with a $65 million Series A, has seven Google Brain alums on its founding team.

As more companies develop and use LLMs, questions about the ethical use of the technology will only become more pressing. We spoke with leaders from Cohere, Hugging Face, and Primer to learn how they’re addressing this issue. Find out what they said here.—HF

In October 2021, Google announced its “Carbon Footprint” for Google Cloud—a reporting dashboard that tracks carbon emissions derived from the company’s popular suite of computing services.

More than a year later, Google has grown its Carbon Footprint footprint. At its first Sustainability Summit last month, Google announced additional features to the platform.

• Scope it out: Carbon Footprint’s first version supplied what’s known as scope 2 data, or the indirect emissions from purchased energy. The service now offers insight on scope 1 (emissions sources that an organization directly controls) and scope 3 (indirect emissions along a supply chain).
• Low mode: With the “low-carbon mode” feature enabled, organizations can now be more selective with data centers. “This basically would enact a policy for [an] organization’s cloud usage that would say, ‘Hey, only use the most carbon-free locations to distribute your workloads,’” Chris Talbott, Google sustainability lead, told IT Brew.
• Workspace: To track the energy usage of tools like Gmail and Meet, Google’s announcement noted that Carbon Footprint for Google Workspace will be available early next year.

Zoom out: The announcements arrive as a growing number of companies—including Mastercard, Microsoft, VMware, and Apple—have announced commitments to significantly reduce emissions.

Read the full story from IT Brew here.—BH

Coworking is a weekly segment where we spotlight Emerging Tech Brew readers who work with emerging technologies. Click here if you’d like a chance to be featured.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

I work on delivering R&D projects in a data-science company that uses machine learning for energy optimization in commercial buildings.

What’s your favorite emerging tech project you’ve worked on?

Using electric vehicles to reduce a building’s carbon emissions by storing on-site solar for later use using vehicle to grid (V2G) systems. This technology can leverage the coming EV revolution to create a grid-scale battery out of all the electric cars people will have.

What emerging tech are you most optimistic about? Least? And why?

Most: Fusion (even if it’s “still 10 years away,” this has been said since the ’70s), it’s the energy source of the future and I see it as the first step to becoming a Type 2 civilization (if we can reach Type 1 first!).

Least: It’s difficult to say I’m the least optimistic about it because it’s a great idea, but hydrogen fuel cells, because of round-cycle efficiency and the changing focus from fuel cells to internal-combustion engines for hydrogen fuels.

What’s the best piece of tech-related media you’ve read/watched/listened to?

Probably “How Apple Just Changed the Entire Industry (M1 Chip)” by Cold Fusion on YouTube. ARM chips are exciting despite the foreshadowing of quantum computing.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile?

I’m an avid kite surfer and surfer.

What do you think about when you’re not thinking about tech?

I love astronomy. It’s difficult to get a word in edgewise once I start talking about space.

Stat: Microsoft signed a 10-year agreement with Climeworks to pay for 10,000 tonnes of CO2 removal. It’s the longest-term commitment yet from Microsoft, which has been a leader in this space.

Quote: “Rather than trying to turn the southern border into a high-tech fortress, we need to meet our legal obligation to protect those fleeing violence abroad. Past technologies have not only been biased and error-prone, but they have put Americans in harm’s ways,” Albert Fox Cahn, director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project re: Mexico’s agreement to spend $1.5 billion on “smart” border technology

Read: Could AI help business leaders reach ESG and sustainability goals?

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It may be the dead of summer—about as far from the school year as one can get—but that doesn’t matter to us nerds here at Emerging Tech Brew.

It’s time for a quiz: A news quiz. Click here to take the latest installment.

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• A conversation with DOE’s Jennifer Wilcox, who (literally) wrote the book on carbon capture
• This startup wants to invent brand new forms of meat
• Inside indoor-farming giant, Bowery Farming