Low-code generation tools and no code software are waiting

Low-code/no-code is not yet elevated

The lack of developers may have prompted investment in low-code development tools and no code software, but VCs and tech giants are still waiting for the industry’s breakout moment.

If you listen to its supporters, the low-code/no-code movement has succeeded in the enterprise tech industry.

• A wave of startups including Builder.ai and Genesis Global have raised $ 100 million or more, and SaaS giants from ServiceNow and Salesforce to Microsoft have developed their own brands of low -cost development features. code and no code.
• Late last year, there were “over 200-and-something low-code startups, vendors, large companies like us in this market,” said Marcus Torres, vice president of low-code ServiceNow App Engine platform.

But despite market activity, industry experts and practitioners disagree on where the true value of the industry lies.

• Most companies that have talked to Protocol agree that those tools actually make the coding process less time consuming for development teams.
• But former developer-turned-VC Mackey Craven disagrees that developers are the best target market for these tools. “For me, it’s a little bit more about taking someone who [doesn’t have] the whole level of special skill set to be a developer itself and gives them more ability to solve their own problems, ”he said.

The question also remains whether standalone low-code and no code vendors or platform players will capture the market.

• Although companies like Mendix, OutSystems and Retool have encountered some success as standalone development platforms, some practitioners in the industry do not believe that these types of companies will live much longer.
• “I think the industry is changing now to the point where you can no longer stand alone,” said Matt Calkins, founder and CEO of low-code platform Appian.

One thing seems certain, however: Low-code and no-code development isn’t going away any time soon and the industry is still building towards its breakout moment. “I think within the companies, they’re ahead of it and they’re coming out now, but it’s too early,” said Chris Yin, a principal at Scale Venture Partners. “We’re still waiting for more.”

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– Aisha counts (email | kaba)

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Why AI Twitter is scared about ‘sentient’ AI

Twitter went on fire this weekend, but it had nothing to do with Amber Heard. Instead, tech geeks fought a Googler’s argument that a natural-language-processing model the company developed was “sentient,” and therefore could have achieved the AI ​​holy grail: artificial general intelligence.

Blake Lemoine, a Google engineer and philosophical rabble-rouser who was the subject of a profile in the Washington Post, thinks Google’s LaMDA model may have a mind of its own. Some people reading the article are concerned about the implications for humanity if AI becomes self-aware. Meanwhile, AI ethics and pragmatists dismissed Lemoine’s argument.

“’Sentient’ is misused by many ML folks, ”tweeted Oregon State University AI professor Thomas Dietterich. NYU AI author and professor Gary Marcus agrees, citing, “[L]anguage spoken by these systems has no real meaning. And that certainly doesn’t mean these systems have feelings. ”

Lemoine believes Google should be more open about LaMDA’s capabilities. He even told a member of the House Judiciary committee about Google’s “unethical activities,” and was placed on the company’s administrative leave as a result.

Meanwhile, some AI ethics include former Googlers Timnit Gebru at Meredith Whittaker taught tube -driven AI business models as the main reason for the AGI hype.

While machine-learning models are probably nowhere near general intelligence, there is one thing Lemoine pushed that may have been earlier: the notion of legal human nature for LaMDA. If AI-based tech is to be considered a human in the eyes of the law, it can have significant legal implications for liability, copyright and other issues.

– Kate Kaye (email | kaba)

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