Zoom is pledging to provide artificial intelligence features at no additional cost to paid customers on its video-conferencing platform.
Zoom also advocates the merits of a federated multi-model architecture, which it says will allow for better efficiencies.
The video-conferencing platform has introduced several AI-powered tools during the past year, including AI Companion and Zoom Docs, the latter of which is slated for general availability next year.
The tool is integrated into the Zoom interface, and is accessible In Meetings and Team Chat, and via online and mobile apps.
AI Companion, formerly called Zoom IQ, is a generative AI assistant for the video-conferencing service and it helps to automate time-consuming tasks.
Zoom IQ can also summarizes meetings, providing an account of what was said and who said it, highlighting key topics.
AI Companion is available at no additional cost for customers signed up to Zoom's subscription plans.
Two other plans, Business Plus and Enterprise, are priced according to the customer's requirements.
The integration of Zoom Docs and AI Companion means users will be able to receive a summary of their last five meetings and a list of action items, said Zoom's chief growth officer Graeme Geddes.
More than 220,000 users have tapped AI Companion since its launch in September.
Pointing to Zoom's move to include AI Companion at no additional cost for paying customers, Geddes said the vendor believes these data-led features are fundamental capabilities that everyone in the organization should be able to access.
Geddes said Zoom's federated approach to its AI architecture is crucial.
He said rather than anchoring its build on a single AI provider, as some tech vendors have opted to do, Zoom has chosen to incorporate multiple large language models.
These models include its own LLM, as well as third-party models, including Meta Llama 2, OpenAI GPT 3.5 and GPT 4, and Anthropic Claude 2.
This broad approach means AI Companion can evolve and be optimized for quality and performance, Geddes said, adding that this strategy leads to reduced latency and cost efficiencies for customers.
He also said privacy is a top priority, stating Zoom will not train its own AI models and third-party models with customers' meetings data.
In August, Data privacy became a sore point for the vendor, when news emerged that changes made to Zoom's Terms of Service could give the company the right to use customers' video and chat data for its AI initiatives.
Following public outcry, Zoom eventually reconsidered the move and declared that data generated from users of either its free or paid services will not be used to train its AI models.
The episode provided some important learnings, with feedback from customers the key driving force behind Zoom's blanket decision not to train its LLMs based on data of all its customers, across the board, Geddes said.
This approach means the company does not use any customer audio, video, chat, screensharing, attachments, or other communications from customer content - such as poll results, whiteboards, and reactions - to train its AI models.
This Cyber News was published on www.zdnet.com. Publication date: Fri, 22 Dec 2023 15:13:04 +0000