IBM augments watsonx AI and data platform

IBM has introduced several new updates to its watsonx AI and data platform, including support for third-party models.

The enhancements, announced at IBM’s annual THINK conference, also include a new wave of watsonx assistants, as well as a new capability in watsonx Orchestrate to help clients build their own AI assistants across domains.

IBM announced a strategic partnership with Mistral and the Saudi Data and AI Authority aimed at bringing third-party foundation models into the watsonx model library. Under the former agreement, BM will soon offer its customers the Mistral family of commercial models on IBM watsonx.ai. The latter partnership involves the introduction of an open Arabic large language model.

Meanwhile, the new AI assistants include Code Assistant for Enterprise Java Applications, which is expected to launch in October. IBM is also expanding its NVIDIA GPU offerings to now offer NVIDIA L40S and NVIDIA L4 Tensor Core GPUs.

At THINK, IBM also previewed its new vision and capabilities for AI-powered automation designed to allow CIOs to implement AI-powered predictive automation of their IT environments.

The company previewed a new generative AI-powered tool called IBM Concert, which is scheduled to launch into general availability next month. The tool is designed to act as the nerve centre of an enterprise’s technology and operations, providing generative AI-driven insights across clients’ application portfolios.

IBM also released a family of language and code Granite models into open source, which are suitable for tasks such as complex application modernisation, code generation, fixing bugs, explaining and documenting code, and maintaining repositories. The models have been trained on 116 programming languages.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the new capabilities will be a game changer. “We firmly believe in bringing open innovation to AI. We want to use the power of open source to do with AI what was successfully done with Linux and OpenShift,” he said.

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