As clients adopt generative AI (gen AI), they seek the right model choices, robust platforms to integrate AI into applications, and a reliable partner to help scale and implement AI with minimal risks. IBM watsonx™ addresses a wide array of business requirements and use cases specific to each enterprise department, domain and industry.

Our new partnerships with Mistral and the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), announced today at THINK, are a testament to this commitment. These collaborations aim to integrate cutting-edge foundation models into our extensive model library.

• IBM has announced a new strategic partnership with Mistral AI, the French AI model company. IBM will soon offer its customers the Mistral family of commercial models on IBM® watsonx.ai™, both on-premises and in IBM Cloud®. This includes the latest version of Mistral-Large, one of the leading AI models in the market today. IBM looks forward to continuing open-source collaboration with Mistral AI, including their popular Mixtral series of open-source mixture-of-experts models, and IBM InstructLab-tuned Mistral 7B variant, Merlinite.
  
• IBM premiered the Allam, an open Arabic large language model (LLM) from SDAIA, today on the watsonx platform. Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO of IBM, and Dr. Esam, Director of the National Information Center at SDAIA, will formally announce how the two organizations will collaborate to transform the Middle East region with new technologies such as gen AI.

On 18 April 2024, IBM announced the availability of Meta Llama 3, the next generation of Meta’s open LLM, on the watsonx AI and data platform to help enterprises innovate their AI journeys. The addition of Llama 3 builds on IBM’s collaboration with Meta to advance open innovation for AI. The two companies also started the AI Alliance late last year, which includes a group of leading organizations across industry, startups, academia, research and government. It has since grown to more than 100 members and collaborators.

These strategic partnerships complement IBM’s open source strategy and offerings, including our most capable and efficient IBM® Granite™ code models and InstructLab, our novel approach to advancing true open source innovation around LLMs. This approach aims to invigorate a robust AI ecosystem with open access to models and tools, helping businesses work collaboratively on safe, responsible AI.

At IBM, we take a differentiated approach to delivering enterprise-grade models that help clients scale quality gen AI with confidence and control. With the IBM Research® Lab Alignment technique now integrated into the InstructLab open source tool, models can be tuned with new open source skills and knowledge.

Models are tested and benchmarked with IBM’s proprietary ‘FM_EVAL’ test data sets that simulate real-world enterprise gen AI applications for specific domains and use cases. The outcome is a library of trusted, high-performing and cost-effective models purpose-built for enterprises that IBM brings to its watsonx platform.

In the dynamic world of gen AI, one-size-fits-all approaches are inadequate. As businesses strive to harness the power of AI, having a spectrum of model choices at their disposal is necessary to spur innovation, customize models for specific business applications, adapt to changing markets, optimize costs and mitigate model risks.

At IBM, we are collaborating with leaders in foundation models across the globe, such as Meta, Mistral and SDAIA, to provide enterprise clients with best-in-breed models while enabling quality and safety throughout the AI lifecycle. Read this white paper to learn more about IBM’s model point-of-view: A differentiated approach to AI foundation models.