What is Google PaLM?
The PaLM API is a simple entry point for Google’s large language models, which can be used for a variety of applications
Google is offering developers access to one of its most advanced AI language models: PaLM. The search giant is launching an API for PaLM alongside a number of AI enterprise tools it says will help businesses “generate text, images, code, videos, audio, and more from simple natural language prompts.”
There is a growing trend of generative AI applications that are changing the way people engage with technology, including games, dialogue agents, creative brainstorming tools, and coding tools. At Google, their goal is to make AI more accessible by enabling developers to create the next wave of applications using generative AI. To achieve this, we offer user-friendly APIs and tools that developers can use to get started.
PaLM is a large language model, or LLM, similar to the GPT series created by OpenAI or Meta’s LLaMA family of models. Google first announced PaLM in April 2022. Like other LLMs, PaLM is a flexible system that can potentially carry out all sorts of text generation and editing tasks. You could train PaLM to be a conversational chatbot like ChatGPT, for example, or you could use it for tasks like summarizing text or even writing code. (It’s similar to features Google also announced today for its Workspace apps like Google Docs and Gmail.)
In order to make it easier for developers to train PaLM to carry out specific tasks, Google is launching a new app alongside the PaLM API called MakerSuite. “With MakerSuite, you’ll be able to iterate on prompts, augment your dataset with synthetic data, and easily tune custom models,” said the company in a press release. Google says this sort of fine-tuning, which is necessary to create a consumer-friendly AI system, can even be done in a browser, with the computationally intensive work of training and deployment handled by Google Cloud.
And finally, Google is also launching a new platform called Generative AI App Builder. The company says this platform “allows developers to quickly ship new experiences including bots, chat interfaces, custom search engines, digital assistants, and more. Developers have API access to Google’s foundation models and can use out-of-the-box templates to jumpstart the creation of gen apps in minutes or hours.”
This may come across as a little dull and geared towards businesses, which is indeed the case. However, Google is making a significant effort to provide more AI resources to a wider range of companies. With access to PaLM, businesses will be able to create fresh AI language services, similar to how OpenAI’s language APIs contributed to a proliferation of new startups. Put simply, the PaLM API is an additional tool that will stimulate further AI advancements in 2023.
