Recent breakthroughs in AI have not only increased demand for AI products,
they've also lowered the barriers to entry for those who want to build AI
products. The model-as-a-service approach has transformed AI from an esoteric
discipline into a powerful development tool that anyone can use. Everyone,
including those with minimal or no prior AI experience, can now leverage AI
models to build applications. In this book, author
Chip Huyen discusses AI engineering: the process of building applications with
readily available foundation models.
The book starts with an overview of AI engineering, explaining how it differs
from traditional ML engineering and discussing the new AI stack. The more AI is
used, the more opportunities there are for catastrophic failures, and therefore,
the more important evaluation becomes. This book discusses different approaches
to evaluating open-ended models, including the rapidly growing AI-as-a-judge
approach.
AI application developers will discover how to navigate the AI landscape,
including models, datasets, evaluation benchmarks, and the seemingly infinite
number of use cases and application patterns. You'll learn a framework for
developing an AI application, starting with simple techniques and progressing
toward more sophisticated methods, and discover how to efficiently deploy these
applications.