IBM releases new AI models for businesses as genAI competition heats up

IBM released the latest version of its artificial intelligence models catered towards businesses on Monday, looking to capitalize on the surge in enterprises adopting generative AI technology.

"Granite 3.0" models will be made open-source, similar to other versions in IBM's Granite family of AI models. This approach differs from rivals such as Microsoft that charge customers for access to their models.

In turn, IBM offers a paid tool called Watsonx that helps run models inside data centers after they have been customized.

Some variants of the new Granite models are available starting Monday for commercial use on the Watsonx platform. A selection of these models will also be available on Nvidia's stack of software tools that enable businesses to incorporate AI models.

The new Granite models were trained using AI chip leader Nvidia's H100 graphics processor units (GPUs), said Dario Gil, IBM's director of research.