Hugging Face is becoming the “GitHub” for large language models (LLMs). Hugging Face offers tools that simplify LLM development and deployment.
Large language models (LLMs) have taken the tech industry by storm in recent years, unleashing new frontiers of innovation and disrupting everything from search to customer service. Underpinning this revolution in artificial intelligence are open ecosystems like GitHub and Hugging Face, which enable developers and companies to build, deploy and scale LLMs rapidly. Just as GitHub has become the go-to platform for software development and collaboration, Hugging Face is now emerging as the de facto hub for all things related to LLMs.The Rise of Large Language Models
LLMs like GPT-3, BERT and PaLM have captured the imagination of the tech world with their ability to generate human-like text, answer questions, summarize documents and even write code based on simple text prompts. According to a McKinsey report, investments in natural language processing startups focusing on LLMs ballooned from $100 million in 2020 to over $1.5 billion in 2021.
This surge of interest stems from LLMs’ versatility in tackling diverse AI challenges. For instance, OpenAI’s ChatGPT excels at conversational tasks while tools like Cohere’s Generative NLP API summarize texts and moderate content. LLMs are transforming how businesses operate, spurring everything from intelligent search to automated customer support.
McKinsey estimates that LLMs could create $200 billion to $300 billion in annual economic value by 2025 just within the US economy. Tech giants in the US like Google, Meta and Microsoft as well as startups are racing to tap into the potential of LLMs. But building, deploying and iterating on LLMs require specialized infrastructure and tooling.GitHub’s Pivotal Role in Software Collaboration
To understand Hugging Face’s growing significance as a hub for LLMs, it is instructive to examine the indispensable role GitHub has played in software development. Launched in 2008, GitHub pioneered the open source Git protocol for version control and source code management.
Today, GitHub hosts over 200 million code repositories and over 83 million developers. It offers developers tools to collaborate, review code, track issues and release software. GitHub has become integral to how software teams operate, exemplified by Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of it in 2018.
According to Stack Overflow’s 2021 survey, over 90% of developers use GitHub. The platform’s social coding capabilities have broken down barriers in software development. Developers can tap into open source projects to accelerate builds.
