IBM lures developers with AI and machine learning projects

As part of this expansion, IBM added more data scientists and AI engineers, which has resulted in new projects, such as the Model Asset eXchange (MAX) and the Fabric for Deep Learning (FfDL) which is pronounced "fiddle." MAX is an open source ecosystem for data scientists and AI developers to share and consume models that use machine learning engines, such as TensorFlow, PyTorch and Caffe2, Diaz said. It also provides a standard approach to classify, annotate, and deploy these models for prediction and inferencing. Additionally, developers can train and deploy MAX models for production workloads that use Watson Studio, such as internet-of-things applications, said Guido Jouret, chief digital officer at ABB. IBM's MAX not only avoids the cost and time for developers to create these models themselves, but they also get access to the open source community to continually add and improve on these models, said Kathleen Walch, senior analyst at Cognilytica, based in Washington, D.C.. "It helps level the playing field for smaller companies [that] don't have as much data or resources," she said. Meanwhile, FfDL presents a cloud-native service for popular open source frameworks TensorFlow, Caffe and PyTorch.