IBM Research

Large language models are removing some of the hurdles that make finding, retrieving, and transforming database information so difficult. In a recent milestone, IBM's text-to-SQL generator, based on several IBM Granite LLMs fine-tuned for SQL tasks, landed at the top of the BIRD leaderboard for handling complex database questions. It's part of a larger IBM effort to infuse generative AI into data services to make it easier to extract business insights from massive databases. https://ibm.co/3xTKKyB

IBM’s open-source Granite 20B code model now runs twice as fast, with four times the throughput, after researchers implemented two AI-optimization techniques known as speculative decoding and paged attention. Learn how researchers got the two methods to play nice, both improving user experience and lowering the costs of serving AI models for enterprises. https://lnkd.in/eZ7dHkKY

Like many, our passion for solving problems stems from a childhood love for completing puzzles. Is there a better feeling? Head over to the blog for the story of cryptography researcher Vadim Lyubashevsky, who detailed his journey into securing the world's systems from tomorrow's quantum risks — and how it all started with math puzzles. https://ibm.co/3Vs8py8

Check out this week's edition of The Short, where we explore tiny benchmark LLM breakthroughs from the teams in Israel and Cambridge, we explore how AI is revolutionizing automation for enterprise, and we celebrate the life and legacy of Bob Dennard, inventor of the DRAM chip. Read more on all the latest news:

On this day in 1960, the U.S Army unveiled an IBM 7090 computer at NASA’s George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The Marshall Space Flight Center’s 7090 computer was the first of its kind to be installed by IBM for scientific or commercial data processing. Four times as powerful as any other computer available at that time, the IBM 7090 was a pivotal tool in designing and developing the Saturn space vehicle for Project Saturn. The end result of the project was the rocket used to send the first people to the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. The 7090 helped to plot flight simulations with accurate and detailed trajectories, allowing space flight personnel at Marshall to see within minutes how their design modifications would affect an actual flight into space. Keep checking back for more moments in IBM’s research history. #IBMHistory

This week we lost an extraordinary IBMer, Lynn Conway. She was a pioneer in every way, both for her contributions to the tech industry and for her gender transition at a time when it was not accepted in the professional sphere. In 2020, Lynn was awarded the rare IBM Lifetime Achievement Award for her approach to VLSI Systems, which paved the way for modern “systems-on-a-chip” (SOCs) that power smartphones, computers, and myriad other devices. Lynn will be missed by all that knew her, and she will be remembered for her ardent work to better both technology and humanity for all. https://ibm.co/3KFqjsa

Cryptography was center stage in Zurich recently: the location of this year’s Eurocrypt 2024 https://lnkd.in/eESynNfa, the 43rd Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques. Organized by IBM researchers Julia Hesse, Felix Günther and Bertram Poettering together with colleagues from industry and academia, the event attracted the world’s leading cryptographers. IBM-authored papers pushed new boundaries in the areas of improved security, including Witness Semantic Security and Isogeny Problems with Level Structure - great work that keeps driving this important field forward. And let’s not forget quantum safe cryptography - especially crucial now, as NIST is about to release world’s first post-quantum cryptography standards. The list of papers is here: https://ibm.co/4cgFjZc Amazing work!

Check out IBM RXN for Chemistry - now with e-commerce functionalities!

We’re excited to announce that Qiskit Global Summer School is *back* for the 5th time—with a focus on helping participants master the many new capabilities introduced with the recent release of the Qiskit SDK’s first major version. The theme of this year’s course will be ‘The Path to Utility,’ and will offer 6,000 people the opportunity to gain an understanding of how to harness the full potential of utility-scale hardware through ten online lectures delivered by various IBM Quantum experts, as well as nine live Q&A sessions hosted by IBM Quantum education leads John Watrous and Olivia Lanes, PhD. Our hope is that the Qiskit Global Summer School will be a launch point for many new quantum learners. Head over to the blog to learn more and enroll in this summer’s program: https://ibm.co/4eguGqX

On June 9, 1957, MIT unveiled a dedicated research center housing a $2.7 million IBM 704 computer, weighing in at nearly 20,000 lbs. Donated by IBM as a contribution to advance research and education in the nascent field of computer science, the installation of the IBM 704 marked an important moment in computer history. The 704 was MIT’s first public computer and the largest computer installed in any academic institution at the time. Since 1957, IBM and MIT have continued to collaborate to advance scientific R&D. In 2017, this partnership led to the creation of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bringing together scientists from MIT and IBM Research, the lab focuses on groundbreaking AI research and its application to real-world challenges. Learn more about the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab here: https://ibm.co/3Xivbem Keep checking back for more moments in IBM’s research history. #IBMHistory