IBM, a US-based company, has introduced Watsonx, a new generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform designed to enable businesses to easily and securely leverage advanced AI capabilities. The announcement was made during IBM’s annual Think conference.
Watsonx will assist companies in managing their AI-supported data, allowing them to use it at scale within a more open and trustworthy environment to drive business success. Additionally, the platform will supply organizations with a toolkit to help govern AI usage and ensure data security and compliance with regulatory and ethical standards.
Set to become available in July, Watsonx is an evolution of IBM Watson, a computer program capable of responding to natural language questions. The platform is named after IBM founder Thomas Watson.
IBM’s Chief Commercial Officer, Rob Thomas, highlighted the interest in generative AI but noted that many people remain uncertain about how to properly implement it. He emphasized the need for a trusted, scalable, and adaptable solution that helps businesses avoid potential pitfalls associated with AI deployment.
Generative AI, popularized by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has gained significant momentum in recent years. The technology can produce a wide range of data types, such as audio, code, images, text, simulations, 3D objects, and videos. While it draws from existing data, it is also capable of generating novel and unexpected outputs.
The popularity of ChatGPT has sparked a race with Google’s Bard, piqued the interest of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, and motivated Apple to enhance its digital assistant Siri. CB Insights data reveals that over $4.2 billion was invested in generative AI startups through 215 deals in 2021 and 2022, following a surge of interest in 2019.
An IBM study found that 99% of companies reported cost savings by using virtual agent technology.
