Inflection AI partners with Intel on new LLM appliance

Inflection AI Inc., a well-funded artificial intelligence startup, is teaming up with Intel Corp. to launch an appliance for running large language models.

The companies announced the collaboration today. The appliance is part of a new offering, Inflection for Enterprise, that also includes a cloud-based AI service. 

Inflection AI launched in 2022 and raised $1.3 billion from investors for a ChatGPT alternative called Pi. This past March, Microsoft Corp. hired the company’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mustafa Suleyman to lead its consumer AI group. The tech giant also recruited most of Inflection AI’s employees and licensed its AI models in a transaction reportedly worth $650 million.

Following the Microsoft deal, the LLM developer hired a new leadership team to launch a pivot. Inflection AI announced plans to refocus from its Pi consumer chatbot to developing AI models for the enterprise market. Enterprises are also the target market for the new AI appliance that Inflection AI plans to launch through its new partnership with Intel. 

The appliance is powered by the chipmaker’s Gaudi 3 machine learning accelerator. Introduced in April, the processor features more than three times as many AI-optimized cores as its predecessor. Additionally, Intel has upgraded the built-in Ethernet module that Gaudi 3 uses to share data with the other components of the AI clutter in which it’s installed.

The Inflection for Enterprise appliance combines the Gaudi 3 with Inflection AI’s latest LLM, Inflection 3.0. The AI provider says its software can run on Intel’s silicon up to twice as cost-efficiently as on certain rival processors.

Inflection 3.0 is available in two editions. One is geared towards powering chatbots while the other is optimized for tasks that require closely following user instructions. The latter LLM can also package its prompt responses into the JSON data format, which makes it easier for developers to integrate the model’s output into applications.

Inflection for Enterprise customers will receive a version of Inflection 3.0 customized to their requirements. The company customizes the LLM by fine tuning it on each organization’s data. According to Inflection AI, this fine-tuning process makes its LLM more useful for the organization’s employees and ensures that the model’s output aligns with internal content style guidelines.

“Inflection for Enterprise is the only system that allows enterprises to own their intelligence in its entirety,” Inflection AI CEO Sean White wrote in a blog post. “You own your data, your fine-tuned model, and the architecture it runs on. It’s fully in your control to host on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid.”

Intel and Inflection AI plan to make their jointly developed appliance available in the first quarter of 2025. The chipmaker is expected to be among the first customers. In the meantime, Inflection for Enterprise is available through Intel Tiber AI Cloud, a cloud platform that provides on-demand access to Gaudi 3 and several of the chipmaker’s other processors.

Image: Intel