Databricks vs Pixeltable for multimodal AI apps

import pixeltable as pxt
from pixeltable.functions.huggingface import clip
from pixeltable.functions.video import extract_audio, frame_iterator
from pixeltable.functions.whisper import transcribe
from pixeltable.functions.yolox import yolox
from pixeltable.serving import FastAPIRouter

TableModel = pxt.model_base()
clip_embed = clip.using(model_id='openai/clip-vit-base-patch32')

class Videos(TableModel, name='videos'):
    title: pxt.String
    video: pxt.Video
    audio = extract_audio(video)
    transcript = transcribe(audio, model='base').text.astype(pxt.String)

class Frames(
    TableModel,
    name='frames',
    base=Videos,
    iterator=frame_iterator(video=Videos.video, fps=1),
):
    detections = yolox(frame, model_id='yolox_s', threshold=0.5)
    __indexes__ = [pxt.EmbeddingIndex(frame, embedding=clip_embed)]

@pxt.query
def search_video(query: str, limit: int = 5):
    sim = Frames.frame.similarity(string=query)
    return (
        Frames.order_by(sim, asc=False)
        .limit(limit)
        .select(title=Videos.title, frame_attrs=Frames.frame_attrs, score=sim)
    )

api = FastAPIRouter(name='media')
api.add_insert_route(
    Videos, path='/videos', inputs=[Videos.title], uploadfile_inputs=[Videos.video]
)
api.add_query_route(path='/search', query=search_video)

# pxt schema update app.py media -f
# pxt service update app.py media -f

# Databricks FILE column plus a Python UDF.
# Sources (accessed 2026-11-09):
# https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/sql/language-manual/data-types/file-type
# https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/unstructured/file-udfs
#
# SQL (workspace):
# CREATE TABLE dashcam.clips (
#   clip_id BIGINT,
#   video FILE MANAGED
# );

from pyspark.sql.functions import udf
from pyspark.sql.types import FileRef, StringType

@udf(returnType=StringType())
def sample_frame_path(file: FileRef) -> str:
    path = file.as_local_file()
    # Decode the clip, sample a still, and run a detector yourself.
    # FILE is a governed pointer, not a Video type.
    return str(path)

# AI Search indexes a Delta table in Unity Catalog.
# It is not frame_iterator on the FILE column.