AI analyst Mark Beccue on IBM’s evolving AI role

Consumer AI is a hot topic these days, with GPUs selling in big numbers. There are other developments, too, including talk of custom silicon at recent industry events.

The world has completely changed, according to theCUBE Research executive analyst John Furrier (pictured, left). It’s clear there is a platform shift, and there is beginning to be some visibility in the market around where the AI is starting to drop.

AI analyst Mark Beccue talks with theCUBE’s John Furrier about IBM’s AI strategy.

“Certainly, there’s a platform refresh at the bottom of the stack, middle layer and the app layer,” Furrier said. “Generative AI is changing everything, because it’s a disruptive enabler. There’s enablement, there’s value creation opportunities, but someone loses. Things will be disrupted.”

There’s not a good grip in the enterprise space about how much all of this costs, according to AI analyst Mark Beccue (right). There are particular concerns when it comes to workloads.

“Where are you going to run these AI workloads? How much does it cost? There’s training versus inference and all those things. I think what the problem is so much is in flux,” Beccue said. “We don’t know, are the models run big? Are they going to get smaller? What are those workloads going to look like? I don’t really think there’s a good idea of what that cost is.”

Furrier and Beccue spoke at IBM Think, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the challenges and opportunities in the enterprise AI landscape and IBM’s evolving role in AI. (* Disclosure below.) 

IBM focuses on development tools: AI analyst weighs in

When it comes to IBM Corp.’s strategy, there are a lot of different ways that the company can play it, according to Beccue. But it’s less about the top layer being applications.

“We’re more about development tools and platforms to build your own,” he said. “If you look at what IBM’s done that I think is really, really smart, is they’ve built a series of these language models and they’ve done it very responsibly. But they’re almost narrowly focused.”

The company has different ones focused on finance and other different pieces, Beccue added. But there’s something else to consider here.

“All the different Granite models are really cool, but think of it as they’ve built a way to have a trusted partner that can help you build your own stuff,” he said. “That’s where I think it is right now and where they’re headed, and they have some legs to do that.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of IBM Think:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM Think. Neither IBM, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE