IBM pivots to focus on code generation with open-source Granite generative AI models
IBM Corp. announced its focus on generative artificial intelligence development by updating its year-old WatsonX platform with a new family of open-source Granite models. The company also introduced InstructLab, an initiative aimed at accelerating contributions from the open-source community to generative AI development.
According to Chief Executive Arvind Krishna, open-source will play a crucial role in IBM's generative AI strategy. He emphasized using the power of open source to revolutionize AI, similar to what was done with Linux and OpenShift.
Focus on businesses
IBM is concentrating on businesses rather than consumers and is working closely with various AI companies to assist businesses in putting their AI pilots into production. The company is currently engaged in over 300 AI projects with clients.
The open-source Granite models unveiled by IBM highlight the company's focus on algorithms that generate software code. These models excel at coding tasks and are designed to perform a variety of functions, including code generation, bug fixing, and application modernization.
Performance and capabilities
The Granite LLMs come in different sizes and are trained on 116 programming languages, enabling them to deliver state-of-the-art performance across various coding tasks. IBM showcased the models' efficiency across industry benchmarks and their ability to handle tasks in languages such as C++, Python, and Java.
IBM's confidence in the Granite models is evident as they power WatsonX's Code Assistant for specialized domains and are fine-tuned for tasks like creating SQL queries from natural language commands.
Community involvement and partnerships
By open-sourcing the Granite family, IBM aims to leverage a broader community of developers and experts to enhance the models' capabilities further. The company is collaborating with Red Hat on InstructLab to encourage continuous development of generative AI models through community contributions.
In addition to new offerings in WatsonX, IBM is introducing automation capabilities for predictive IT environment automation and partnering with companies like Amazon and Microsoft for AI governance and platform accessibility.
Overall, IBM's strategic shift towards open-source Granite models signifies a significant step in the realm of AI code generation, with potential benefits for enterprise IT modernization and development.
