The Gilbane Advisor

Curated for content, computing, and digital experience professionals

Month: October 2023 (Page 1 of 3)

Gilbane Advisor 10-25-23 — Semantic Scholar, AI storytelling

October 25, 2023 /

This week we feature articles from Cassidy Trier, and Dan McCreary.

Additional reading comes from Kim Salazar, Tim Neusesser & Nishi Chitale, David Pierce, Petar Veličković, and Kurt Cagle.

News comes from Netlify, Language Weaver, dbt Labs, and OpenLink Software.

All previous issues are available at https://gilbane.com/gilbane-advisor-index

Opinion / Analysis

Case Study: Iterative design for skimming support

As you know, I often recommend academic and technical papers to read. I do so because it is the only way to keep up with the rapidly changing areas I cover. I recommend papers that I think you can learn from without having a math PhD, or other deep technical expertise. I just ran across Semantic Scholar, a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature from the Allen Institute for AI. I have just started playing with it (it is still in beta), and I think it has promise for technical researchers, but also for less technical analysts and strategists. Cassidy Trier provides a good introduction with links to try it out, and provide feedback. (7 min)

https://blog.allenai.org/case-study-iterative-design-for-skimming-support-5563dbe0899e

The Jellyfish and the Flatworm

“Many executives are pondering difficult decisions about making large investments in AI. For many of them, their lack of a technical background makes it difficult for them to visualize the impact of AI on their customers, their products, and their employees. To help executives make the right strategic decisions, we need powerful storytelling in terms they can understand and remember.” Dan McCreary provides one. (9 min)

https://dmccreary.medium.com/the-jellyfish-and-the-flatworm-bdad78e6f68b

More Reading

All Gilbane Advisor issues

Content technology news

Netlify announces Composable Web Platform

The platform unifies content, data sources, code and infrastructure with your chosen components integrated into a single workflow.
https://www.netlify.com/platform/

Language Weaver extends neural machine translation capabilities with LLMs

To accelerate development and deployment of generative AI to enhance the capabilities of its secure, AI-powered machine translation platform.
https://www.rws.com/language-weaver/

dbt Labs announces the next generation of dbt Semantic Layer

New features: Dynamic join support, optimized query plans and SQL generation, expanded data platform support, a new integration with Tableau.
https://www.getdbt.com

A practical application of a Knowledge Graph-driven Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) for modern knowledge discovery and exploration.
https://medium.com/openlink-software-blog/introducing-the-openlink-personal-assistant-e74a76eb2bed

All content technology news

The Gilbane Advisor is authored by Frank Gilbane and is ad-free, cost-free, and curated for content, computing, web, data, and digital experience technology and information professionals. We publish recommended articles and content technology news weekly. We do not sell or share personal data.

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Altova announces Version 2024 with AI Assistants and PDF Data Mapping

October 24, 2023 /

Altova announced the release of Version 2024 of its desktop developer tools, server software, and regulatory solutions. New features across the product line include:

  • AI Assistant in XMLSpy boosts productivity for XML and JSON development tasks by generating schemas, instance documents, and sample data based on natural language prompts. The AI Assistant can also generate XSL, XPath, and XQuery code. Generated code can be copied, opened in a new document, or sent to the XPath/XQuery window for further review.
  • MapForce PDF Extractor is a visual utility for defining the structure of a PDF document and extracting data from it. That data is then available for mapping to other formats in MapForce, including Excel, JSON, databases, XML, etc., for conversion, data integration, and ETL processes.
  • AI integration in DatabaseSpy includes an AI Assistant for generating SQL statements, sample data, table relations, as well as AI extensions to explain, pretty print, and complete SQL statements.
  • Split output preview for XML and database report design in StyleVision lets designers see the changes they make in a design reflected in the output in real time. The side-by-side panes show the design and output in HTML, PDF, Word, or text at the same time.

https://www.altova.com/whatsnew

DataStax launches new integration with LangChain

October 24, 2023 /

DataStax announced a new integration with LangChain, the popular orchestration framework for developing applications with large language models (LLMs). The integration makes it easy to add Astra DB – the real-time database for developers building production Gen AI applications – or Apache Cassandra, as a new vector source in the LangChain framework. 

As companies implement retrieval augmented generation (RAG) – the process of providing context from outside data sources to deliver more accurate LLM query responses – into their generative AI applications, they require a vector store that provides real-time updates with zero latency on critical production workloads.

Generative AI applications built with RAG stacks require a vector-enabled database and an orchestration framework like LangChain to provide memory or context to LLMs for accurate and relevant answers. Developers use LangChain as an AI-first toolkit to connect their application to different data sources.

The integration lets developers leverage the Astra DB vector database for their LLM, AI assistant, and real-time generative AI projects through the LangChain plugin architecture for vector stores. Together, Astra DB and LangChain help developers to take advantage of framework features like vector similarity search, semantic caching, term-based search, LLM-response caching, and data injection from Astra DB (or Cassandra) into prompt templates. 

https://www.datastax.com/blog/llamaindex-and-astra-db-building-petabyte-scale-genai-apps-just-got-easier

Sinequa integrates enterprise search with Google’s Vertex AI

October 24, 2023 /

Enterprise Search provider Sinequa announced it has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud by adding its generative AI capabilities to Sinequa’s supported integrations. By combining the conversational abilities of Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform with the factual knowledge provided by Sinequa’s intelligent search platform, businesses can use generative AI and gain insights from their enterprise content. 

Sinequa’s approach to generative AI is agnostic, ensuring compatibility with all major generative AI APIs. Sinequa support to Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform and its expanding library of large language models (LLMs) such as PaLM-2, enables Sinequa users to leverage Google Cloud’s generative AI technologies for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) within their existing Sinequa ecosystem.

In combination with generative AI, Sinequa’s Neural Search uses the most relevant information across all your content to ground generative AI in the truth of your enterprise’s knowledge. With search and generative AI together, you can engage in dialogue with your information just as you would talk with a knowledgeable colleague, and without concerns present with generative AI alone, such as hallucinations or security. This means you can converse with your content: conduct research, ask questions, explore nuances, all with more accurate, relevant results.

https://www.sinequa.com

Ontotext GraphDB 10.4 enables users to chat with their knowledge graphs

October 24, 2023 /

Ontotext released 10.4 of GraphDB, their knowledge graph database engine. GraphDB 10.4 is now available on AWS Marketplace, adding to the flexibility of how enterprises can scale and maintain knowledge graph applications. The new AWS operational guide and improvements to backup support on AWS S3 storage increases the efficiency of deployment of GraphDB. 

Other new 10.4 features include user-defined Access Control Lists (ACLs) for more granular control over the security of your data. Connectors to external services now include one for ChatGPT that lets you customize the answers returned by the OpenAI API with data from your own knowledge graphs. Building on this, the Talk to Your Graph LLM-backed chatbot lets you ask natural language questions about your own data.

Several new features make maintenance of running servers easier and more efficient. The improved Cluster Management View shows a wider range of information about the status of each running cluster, and upgrades to the Backup and Snapshot Compression tools reduce backup time and necessary disk space. GraphDB 10.4’s ability to control the transaction log size minimizes the chance of running out of disk space, and greater control over transaction IDs makes it easier to analyze transaction behavior and identify potential issues.

https://www.ontotext.com/products/graphdb/

Language Weaver extends neural machine translation capabilities with LLMs

October 19, 2023 /

Language Weaver, a business unit within RWS’s Language Services and Technology division, is accelerating the development and deployment of generative AI technologies to enhance the capabilities of its secure, AI-powered machine translation platform. 

Language Weaver is using Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) machine learning and AI services, including Amazon SageMaker, to build new features and scale its Large Language Model (LLM) capabilities in a private, secure and protected environment.

The Language Weaver platform is a neural machine translation platform that combines cutting-edge machine learning, advanced artificial intelligence capabilities and linguistic expertise. The platform provides highly accurate, real-time translation across almost 3,500 language combinations.

RWS has now also joined the AWS Partner Network (APN). The APN is a global community of partners that leverages programs, expertise and resources to build, market and sell customer offerings. This network features 100,000 partners from more than 150 countries.

https://www.rws.com/language-weaver/

Netlify announces Composable Web Platform

October 19, 2023 /

Netlify announced the Netlify Composable Web Platform, a new platform for enterprises to build and implement modern, composable web architecture. Netlify’s Composable Web Platform offers enterprises a simplified path towards composable web architecture and a foundation for architects, developers, and marketers.

The Composable Web Platform unifies content, data sources, code and infrastructure, and allows developers to select components to integrate into a single workflow. The platform offers a single user interface for customers to access:

  • Netlify Core provides teams with the platform and workflow to focus on building websites and apps without labor-intensive operations. Core primitive advancements added to Netlify Core ensure that updating or rebuilding assets only happens where required, and make sure that customer applications are consistent, up to date, and performant.
  • Netlify Connect brings all content sources and CMS applications together in a single location, giving web teams the power to orchestrate and manage how and where content is served to all frontend digital experiences. A new private SDK allows any company to create a connection between their purchased or custom content source and Netlify Connect.
  • Netlify Create integrates with your chosen content systems, frameworks, and architectures, providing an intuitive visual editing experience.

https://www.netlify.com/platform/

Gilbane Advisor 10-18-23 — UI models, GenAI use cases

October 18, 2023 /

This week we feature articles from Michael Andrews, and Barr Moses.

Additional reading comes from Daniel Tunkelang, Matthias Pfefferle, Jonny Protheroe & Sian Davies, and Michael Parekh.

News comes from Adobe, Optimizely, Ontotext, and MadCap Software.

All previous issues are available at https://gilbane.com/gilbane-advisor-index

Opinion / Analysis

Bridging the divide between structured content and user interface design

Michael Andrews explains why implementing decoupled design with headless decoupled content management systems is difficult, and makes the case for UI models as the eventual solution. (15 min).

https://storyneedle.com/bridging-the-divide-between-structured-content-and-user-interface-design/

5 Generative AI use cases companies can implement today

“… where do most companies actually start when it comes to incorporating generative AI? What generative AI use cases are realistic, achievable, and actually worth the ROI?”

Barr Moses investigated and does a nice job describing what some early adopters have implemented, with a bit of how and who included. (10 min).

https://towardsdatascience.com/5-generative-ai-use-cases-companies-can-implement-today-f458707bfbbe

More Reading

All Gilbane Advisor issues

Content technology news

Adobe releases new Experience Manager for Enterprises

Adobe Experience Manager Sites enable businesses to build websites, and easily create and edit web content using popular word processing tools.
https://business.adobe.com/products/experience-manager/sites/aem-sites.html

Optimizely debuts marketing operating system

Optimizely One provides a single workflow making it simpler for marketers to create, manage, deliver, and optimize content all in one place.
https://www.optimizely.com

Ontotext GraphDB now available in AWS Marketplace

GraphDB listing on AWS Marketplace enables global customers to apply semantic technology to connect the dots of their enterprise data easily. https://www.ontotext.com/products/graphdb/

MadCap Software brings ChatGPT to MadCap Central

The content management platform provides integrated ChatGPT functionality optimized for authors and editors of technical content.
https://www.madcapsoftware.com

All content technology news

The Gilbane Advisor is authored by Frank Gilbane and is ad-free, cost-free, and curated for content, computing, web, data, and digital experience technology and information professionals. We publish recommended articles and content technology news weekly. We do not sell or share personal data.

Subscribe | View online | Editorial policy | Privacy policy | Contact

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