Red Hat unveils Podman AI Lab to bolster local AI application development

Red Hat has recently launched the Podman AI Lab. This new extension for Podman Desktop enables developers to construct, examine, and run generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)-powered applications in containerised environments directly on their local workstations. The innovation leverages a user-friendly graphical interface, offering developers a practical blend of convenience, simplicity, and cost-efficiency, all whilst ensuring control and confidentiality over sensitive data.

GenAI and open-source large language models (LLMs) have triggered an evolution within digital computing, and customarily, AI-enabled applications are rapidly becoming the norm. This shift has been recognised industry-wide, with IDC predicting that by 2026, 40% of all new applications will integrate AI technology to improve performance and unlock new functionality. Recognising this trend, Red Hat has developed the Podman AI Lab to help developers adopt GenAI for intelligent application development and AI-augmented development capabilities within their workflows.

The new tool comes equipped with a recipe catalogue of sample applications to kickstart developers on some of the more common LLM use cases. These include chatbots that simulate responsive human conversation, text summarisers to help manage information effectively across numerous applications and industries, and code generators to automate repetitive tasks. Object detection and audio-to-text transcription features further expand the wealth of provisions.

For developers, containers are known for providing a flexible, efficient, and consistent environment for building and testing applications. The Podman AI Lab fulfils this need, allowing developers to provision local inference servers to run models locally with an API endpoint, making it simpler to build additional functionality around the model.

Additionally, the Podman AI Lab possesses a playground environment, permitting users to interface with models and observe their performance. The software prompts users as they explore the capabilities and precision of an array of models, assisting in identifying the best fit and the optimum settings for any given application use case.

As AI continues to permeate the enterprise, Red Hat is pioneering the way in its exploitation to kindle innovation, improve efficiency, and add value through a consistent, reliable, and widespread AI platform catalogue for the hybrid cloud.

The Podman AI Lab expands on the well-founded strength of the Podman Desktop and its over one million downloads. The lab also integrates tightly with image mode for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This new modus operandi for the renowned enterprise Linux platform allows the operating system to be delivered as a container image. Accordingly, developers can migrate from their laptop model prototypes to a bootable, portable, AI-infused application – a container that can be run anywhere across the hybrid cloud, from bare metal to any cloud instance available on Red Hat OpenShift.

Building on 30 years of experience in open-source technology, reducing IT costs, and promoting innovation, Red Hat continues to lead the push towards AI integration and normalisation. The firm's strategy focuses on ensuring AI workloads run with data wherever it is stored, addressing any limitations relating to data sovereignty, compliance, and operational integrity. The consistency offered by Red Hat's platforms, irrespective of where they operate, is crucial to maintaining smooth AI innovation streams.