Amid the heightened interest in artificial intelligence (AI), technology giant IBM is introducing Watsonx, its AI and data platform that empowers enterprises to scale and accelerate the impact of advanced AI models while ensuring the use of trusted data. 

With the rising demand for AI in business operations, organizations require a comprehensive technology stack that enables them to train, fine-tune, and deploy AI models, including foundation models and machine learning capabilities, across their entire infrastructure with data integrity, agility, and governance, all within a unified environment capable of running on any cloud platform.

In addition to the Watsonx platform, IBM is unveiling several upcoming advancements, including a GPU-as-a-service infrastructure offering specifically designed to support AI-intensive workloads. The company is also introducing an AI-powered dashboard that measures, tracks, manages, and reports cloud carbon emissions. 

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Generative AI

Also, IBM Consulting is launching a new practice focused on watsonx and generative AI, aiming to assist clients in deploying AI solutions effectively.

Watsonx offers an AI development studio that grants access to IBM-curated and trained foundation models, as well as open-source models. The studio also includes a data store that facilitates data collection and cleansing for training and fine-tuning purposes. It provides an AI governance toolkit to ensure seamless and trusted AI workflows within organizations. The end-to-end AI workflow offered by Watsonx simplifies the adaptation and scalability of AI, making it more accessible for businesses.

IBM highlighted the power of foundation models for AI in business, emphasizing their scalability, affordability, and efficiency. Watsonx was built specifically for enterprise needs, enabling clients to go beyond being mere users and become AI-advantaged. By utilizing Watsonx, clients can quickly train and deploy custom AI capabilities throughout their organization while maintaining full control of their data.

AI deployment

Clients leveraging the Watsonx platform will have access to a comprehensive toolset, technology infrastructure, and consulting expertise required to develop, fine-tune, and adapt AI models using their own data. This empowers them to deploy AI solutions at scale within a trustworthy and open environment, enabling competitive differentiation and unlocking unique business value by leveraging their own data and domain knowledge.

The Watsonx platform comprises three distinct product sets to cater to these needs:

IBM watsonx.ai: A next-generation enterprise studio, set to be generally available in July 2023, that enables AI builders to train, test, fine-tune, and deploy traditional machine learning as well as new generative AI capabilities powered by foundation models. It offers an open and intuitive user interface along with a range of foundation models, training and fine-tuning tools, and cost-effective infrastructure, supporting the entire data and AI lifecycle.

IBM watsonx.data: A purpose-built data store based on an open lakehouse architecture, optimized for governed data and AI workloads. It offers querying, governance, and open data formats for seamless data access and sharing. The solution is expected to be generally available in July 2023 and can manage workloads across on-premise and multi-cloud environments. It reduces the barriers to data entry and applies multiple query engines to uncover valuable insights.

IBM watsonx.governance: An AI governance toolkit that operationalizes governance processes, mitigates risks associated with manual processes, and provides transparent and explainable outcomes. It includes mechanisms to protect customer privacy, detect model bias and drift, and ensure compliance with ethical standards.