AI & Node.js

Why Node.js with AI?

AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) are becoming increasingly important tools for web applications. As a JavaScript/Node.js developer, it's crucial to understand how to integrate them into your projects. While Python is often considered the go-to language for AI and model development, this doesn't mean that all application development will shift to Python. Instead, the tools and languages best suited for each part of an application will continue to be chosen, and these components will be integrated to create the overall solution.

For JavaScript/Node.js developers, this means understanding how to make requests to a running model. Until recently, this typically involved making HTTPS calls to a bespoke service, depending on the AI service or product your company used. However, as the field matures, libraries are emerging that abstract the model endpoints and simplify the implementation of common flows. Some interesting libraries that support JavaScript/TypeScript include Langchain.js and LlamaIndexTS, with the list growing rapidly.

One of the key advantages of using these libraries is their ability to easily switch between accessing a model locally, using a cloud service like OpenAI, or using a model hosted by your organization running in OpenShift AI. This flexibility is important because it allows you to change how your application accesses models without being locked into a specific vendor. It also facilitates experimentation while ensuring that deployments use models in a way that protects proprietary information.