PaLM API & MakerSuite: an approachable way to start prototyping and building generative AI applications

https://developers.googleblog.com/2023/03/announcing-palm-api-and-makersuite.html

Posted by Scott Huffman, Vice President, Engineering and Josh Woodward, Senior Director, Product Management

We’re seeing a new wave of generative AI applications that are transforming the way people interact with technology – from games and dialog agents to creative brainstorming and coding tools. At Google, we want to continue making AI accessible by empowering all developers to start building the next generation of applications with generative AI by providing easy-to-use APIs and tools.

Earlier today, we announced the PaLM API, a new developer offering that makes it easy and safe to experiment with Google’s large language models. Alongside the API, we’re releasing MakerSuite, a tool that lets developers start prototyping quickly and easily. We’ll be making these tools available to select developers through a Private Preview, and stay tuned for our waitlist soon.

	Access Google’s large language models using the PaLM APIThe PaLM API is a simple entry point for Google’s large language models, which can be used for a variety of applications. It will provide developers access to models that are optimized for multi-turn use cases, such as content generation and chat, and general purpose models that are optimized for use cases such as summarization, classification, and more. Starting today, we’re making an efficient model available in terms of size and capabilities, and we’ll add other models and sizes soon.
	Start building quicklyWe’ve spent the last several years building and deploying large language models—from bringing MUM to Search to exploring applications with LaMDA in the AI Test Kitchen. We learned a lot about generative AI development workflows and how fragmented they can be. Developers have to use different tools to accomplish tasks like crafting and iterating on a prompt, generating synthetic data, and tuning a custom model. That’s why we’re releasing MakerSuite, a tool that simplifies this workflow. With MakerSuite, you’ll be able to iterate on prompts, augment your dataset with synthetic data, and easily tune custom models. When you’re ready to move to code, MakerSuite will let you export your prompt as code in your favorite languages and frameworks, like Python and Node.js.
	Tune a modelGenerative models offer developers powerful out-of-the-box functionality. But for specialized tasks, tuning leads to better results. Our tooling will enable developers to leverage parameter-efficient tuning techniques to create models customized to their use case. And with MakerSuite, you’ll be able to quickly test and iterate on your tuned model right in the browser.
	Augment your dataset with synthetic dataHigh-quality data is crucial when developing with AI, and developers are often limited by the data they have. Our tooling will allow you to generate additional data based on a few examples, and then you’ll be able to manage and manipulate the data from there. This synthetic data can be used in various scenarios, such as tuning or evaluations.
	Generate state of the art embeddingsWe’ve been excited by the range of applications developers have found for embeddings, from semantic search to recommendations and classification. With embeddings generated through the PaLM API, developers will be able to build applications with their own data or on top of external data sources. Embeddings can also be used in downstream applications built with TensorFlow, Keras, JAX, and other open-source libraries.
	Build responsibly and safelyWe built our models according to Google’s AI Principles to give developers a responsible AI foundation to start from. We know that control is necessary so developers can define and enforce responsibility and safety in the context of their own applications. Our tools will give developers an easy way to test and adjust safety dimensions to best suit each unique application and use case.
	Scale your generative AI applicationThese developer tools will make it easy to start prototyping and building generative AI applications, but when you need scale, we want to make sure you have the support you need. Google’s infrastructure supports the PaLM API and MakerSuite, so you don’t have to worry about hosting or serving. For developers who want to scale their ideas and get enterprise-grade support, security and compliance, and service level agreement (SLA), they can go to Google Cloud Vertex AI and access the same models, along with a host of advanced capabilities such as enterprise search and conversation AI.

It’s an exciting time in AI for developers and we want to continue to make sure we build AI tools that help make your lives easier. We plan to onboard new developers, roll out new features, and make this technology available to the broader developer community soon. During this time, we’ll listen to feedback, learn, and improve these tools to meet developers where they are.

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