Red Hat delivers AI-optimized Linux platform

At launch, RHEL AI includes support for the Granite 7-billion-parameter English language model. Another Granite model, the 8-billion-parameter coding model, is in preview and will be generally available at the end of this year or beginning of 2025.

RHEL AI also comes with Instruct Lab, an open-source project that helps enterprises fine tune and customize these Granite models, or other open-source AI models.

Finally, RHEL AI also comes with all the underlying platform infrastructure, Katarki says. That includes immediate support for Nvidia hardware. Support for AMD and Intel hardware is expected to arrive in the next few weeks.

Everything is packaged up as a container image, Katarki adds, so that enterprises can use their existing container management tools to administer it. On top of the software, there’s also support and legal indemnification for both the open-source software and the Granite model.

“Think of it as an appliance,” Katarki says. “It’s got everything. The Granite model, Instruct Lab, all the underlying platform software you need, and the operating system underneath it all.”

RHEL AI helps enterprises get away from the “one model to rule them all” approach to generative AI, which is not only expensive but can lock enterprises into a single vendor. There are now open-source large language models available that rival those available from the commercial vendors in performance.