IBM's Watsonx Gets New Generative AI Models, Governance Tools

IBM is beefing up its watsonx platform, adding new generative AI capabilities and support for new foundation models.

Among the updates is the introduction of Granite, a new series of AI models to power natural language processing tasks. The Granite models use decoder architecture to improve sequence generation in text.

IBM also announced the watsonx platform is extending support for new third-party models, including the fine-tuned chat version of Meta’s Llama 2 and StarCoder, the code generation model from Hugging Face and ServiceNow.

The new models are designed to support enterprise natural language processing tasks. Granite is coming to watsonx in Q3 2023, while watsonx users can already access the new third-party models.

Also coming to watsonx is a Tuning Studio – where users can refine prompts and adapt their models to adjust to their unique business needs. Planned availability is Q3 2023.

Watsonx is getting a synthetic data generator as well, allowing users to create artificial datasets to test out models. It’s available now.

IBM also announced a tech preview for watsonx.governance toolkit, designed to help develop explainable AI, which was teased back in July.

This host of updates comes as IBM continues to expand the watsonx platform. Enterprise rollout began in July, with IBM planning to add access to more models and tools.

Related:IBM Unveils Watsonx Code Assistant for Modernizing COBOL

"As demonstrated by the ongoing rollout of the watsonx platform within just a few months since launch, we are here to support clients through the entire AI lifecycle," said Dinesh Nirmal, president of products at IBM Software, in a statement.