IBM launches generative AI platform for enterprises

There's been a lot of buzz around the use of generative AI recently, but businesses have sometimes struggled to find appropriate use cases for the technology.

Today IBM is rolling out its enterprise-ready AI and data platform, watsonx, which the company first previewed back in May of this year.

Watsonx allows clients and partners to specialize and deploy models for various enterprise use cases or build their own. During its beta and tech preview programs, the platform has been shaped by more than 150 users across industries -- from telcos to banking.

"We’re looking at the potential usage of Large Language Models. I think there's a huge possibility with that," says Marc Sabino, MD, internal audit at Citi Bank. "The key one that I think about internally is how do you think about using a LLM to connect your controls to your internal policies and into your regulations."

From today there's a watsonx.ai studio for new foundation models, generative AI and machine learning, along with the watsonx.data fit-for-purpose store offering the flexibility of a data lake and the performance of a data warehouse. Later this year will see the launch of a watsonx.governance toolkit to help enable AI workflows to be built with responsibility, transparency and explainability.

Watsonx.data allows users to access all their data across cloud and on-premises environments through a single point of entry. It also empowers non-technical users with self-service access to high-quality, trustworthy data on a single collaborative platform, while helping to enable security and compliance.

IBM is also working with an expanding ecosystem of partners to co-create and innovate across industries and use cases. This includes working with NASA to build the first foundation model for analyzing geospatial data, and Wimbledon where watsonx has been used to produce tennis commentary.

Kareem Yusuf, senior vice president, product management and growth at IBM Software, says:

Over the next year, watsonx will continue to evolve and we expect to make significant releases. We will be focused on expanding enterprise foundation model use cases beyond NLP and operationalizing 100B+ parameter models for bespoke, targeted use cases -- opening the door to broader enterprise adoption.

We will also bring to bear the strength of our AI governance capabilities -- helping organizations to implement end-to-end lifecycle governance, mitigate risk and manage compliance to the growing AI and industry regulations. AI governance should never be an afterthought, so we encourage our customers begin governance of their ML models today and foundation models at the outset.

You can find out more about watsonx and start a free trial on the IBM site.

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