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IBM Expands Granite Model Family with New Multi-Modal and Reasoning AI Built for the Enterprise

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IBM Expands Granite Model Family with New Multi-Modal and Reasoning AI Built for the Enterprise
Business

Business

IBM Expands Granite Model Family with New Multi-Modal and Reasoning AI Built for the Enterprise

2025-02-26 22:00 Last Updated At:22:35

  • Granite 3.2 – small AI models offering reasoning, vision, and guardrail capabilities with a developer friendly license
  • Updated Granite time series models that offer long-range forecasting with less than 10M parameters
  • ARMONK, N.Y., Feb. 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today debuted the next generation of its Granite large language model (LLM) family, Granite 3.2, in a continued effort to deliver small, efficient, practical enterprise AI for real-world impact.

    All Granite 3.2 models are available under the permissive Apache 2.0 license on Hugging Face. Select models are available today on IBM watsonx.ai, Ollama, Replicate, and LM Studio, and expected soon in RHEL AI 1.5 – bringing advanced capabilities to businesses and the open-source community. Highlights include:

    • A new vision language model (VLM) for document understanding tasks which demonstrates performance that matches or exceeds that of significantly larger models – Llama 3.2 11B and Pixtral 12B – on the essential enterprise benchmarks DocVQA, ChartQA, AI2D and OCRBench1. In addition to robust training data, IBM used its own open-source Docling toolkit to process 85 million PDFs and generated 26 million synthetic question-answer pairs to enhance the VLM's ability to handle complex document-heavy workflows.
    • Chain of thought capabilities for enhanced reasoning in the 3.2 2B and 8B models, with the ability to switch reasoning on or off to help optimize efficiency. With this capability, the 8B model achieves double-digit improvements from its predecessor in instruction-following benchmarks like ArenaHard and Alpaca Eval without degradation of safety or performance elsewhere2. Furthermore, with the use of novel inference scaling methods, the Granite 3.2 8B model can be calibrated to rival the performance of much larger models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet or GPT-4o on math reasoning benchmarks such as AIME2024 and MATH500.3
    • Slimmed-down size options for Granite Guardian safety models that maintain performance of previous Granite 3.1 Guardian models at 30% reduction in size. The 3.2 models also introduce a new feature called verbalized confidence, which offers more nuanced risk assessment that acknowledges ambiguity in safety monitoring.

    ARMONK, N.Y., Feb. 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today debuted the next generation of its Granite large language model (LLM) family, Granite 3.2, in a continued effort to deliver small, efficient, practical enterprise AI for real-world impact.

    All Granite 3.2 models are available under the permissive Apache 2.0 license on Hugging Face. Select models are available today on IBM watsonx.ai, Ollama, Replicate, and LM Studio, and expected soon in RHEL AI 1.5 – bringing advanced capabilities to businesses and the open-source community. Highlights include:

    IBM's strategy to deliver smaller, specialized AI models for enterprises continues to demonstrate efficacy in testing, with the Granite 3.1 8B model recently yielding high marks on accuracy in the Salesforce LLM Benchmark for CRM.

    The Granite model family is supported by a robust ecosystem of partners, including leading software companies embedding the LLMs into their technologies.

    "At CrushBank, we've seen first-hand how IBM's open, efficient AI models deliver real value for enterprise AI – offering the right balance of performance, cost-effectiveness, and scalability," said David Tan, CTO, CrushBank. "Granite 3.2 takes it further with new reasoning capabilities, and we're excited to explore them in building new agentic solutions."

    Granite 3.2 is an important step in the evolution of IBM's portfolio and strategy to deliver small, practical AI for enterprises. While chain of thought approaches for reasoning are powerful, they require substantial compute power that is not necessary for every task. That is why IBM has introduced the ability to turn chain of thought on or off programmatically. For simpler tasks, the model can operate without reasoning to reduce unnecessary compute overhead. Additionally, other reasoning techniques like inference scaling have shown that the Granite 3.2 8B model can match or exceed the performance of much larger models on standard math reasoning benchmarks. Evolving methods like inference scaling remains a key area of focus for IBM's research teams.4

    Alongside Granite 3.2 instruct, vision, and guardrail models, IBM is releasing the next generation of its TinyTimeMixers (TTM) models (sub 10M parameters), with capabilities for longer-term forecasting up to two years into the future. These make for powerful tools in long-term trend analysis, including finance and economics trends, supply chain demand forecasting and seasonal inventory planning in retail.

    "The next era of AI is about efficiency, integration, and real-world impact – where enterprises can achieve powerful outcomes without excessive spend on compute," said Sriram Raghavan, VP, IBM AI Research. "IBM's latest Granite developments focus on open solutions demonstrate another step forward in making AI more accessible, cost-effective, and valuable for modern enterprises."

    To learn more about Granite 3.2, read this technical article.

    About IBM
    IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

    Media contact:
    Amy Angelini
    IBM AI Communications
    alangeli@us.ibm.com  

    1

    Vision model benchmark results are available in IBM's technical article, IBM Granite 3.2: Reasoning, Vision, Forecasting, and More, published February 26,  2025.

    2

    Instruct model  benchmark results are available in IBM's technical article, IBM Granite 3.2: Reasoning, Vision, Forecasting, and More, published February 26,  2025.

    3

    Inference scaling benchmark results are available in IBM's technical research blog, Reasoning in Granite 3.2 Using Inference Scaling, published February 26, 2025.

    4

    Reasoning in Granite 3.2 Using Inference Scaling, IBM, published February 26, 2025.

    1

    Vision model benchmark results are available in IBM's technical article, IBM Granite 3.2: Reasoning, Vision, Forecasting, and More, published February 26,  2025.

    2

    Instruct model  benchmark results are available in IBM's technical article, IBM Granite 3.2: Reasoning, Vision, Forecasting, and More, published February 26,  2025.

    3

    Inference scaling benchmark results are available in IBM's technical research blog, Reasoning in Granite 3.2 Using Inference Scaling, published February 26, 2025.

    4

    Reasoning in Granite 3.2 Using Inference Scaling, IBM, published February 26, 2025.

    ** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

    IBM Expands Granite Model Family with New Multi-Modal and Reasoning AI Built for the Enterprise

    IBM Expands Granite Model Family with New Multi-Modal and Reasoning AI Built for the Enterprise

    IBM Expands Granite Model Family with New Multi-Modal and Reasoning AI Built for the Enterprise

    IBM Expands Granite Model Family with New Multi-Modal and Reasoning AI Built for the Enterprise

The Initiative Aims to Address the Pain Points of Family Filmmaking 

BEIJING, Dec. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 6th, the 3rd FamilyLens International Film Festival opened in Beijing. SmallRig, a global specialized provider of imaging solutions, collaborating with FamilyLens, is empowering family filmmaking through various initiatives, including the Family Filmmaking Co-Creation Initiative, a dedicated family filmmaking kit, and a social impact screening program.

Deepening the "Co-Creation Initiatives"

The Co-Creation Initiatives are a series of global creative initiatives open to filmmakers and image creators worldwide. Through deep collaboration across multiple dimensions — including product co-creation, discovery and promotion, and content co-creation — SmallRig aims to expand the boundaries of mobile filmmaking and bring the spirit of Free Your Dream to life with creators everywhere.

Following the launch of the Mobile Filmmaking Co-Creation Initiative at the 14th International Smartphone Film Festival, SmallRig announced the launch of the Family Filmmaking Co-Creation Initiative on December 6th at the 3rd FamilyLens International Film Festival. The initiative invites global creators and every family to participate, focusing on three core directions: product co-creation, work promotion, and content co-creation, to explore the possibilities of family filmmaking for everyone.

Mr. Zhou Yang, Founder and CEO of SmallRig, shared the inspiration for the initiative: "The initiative is rooted in the immense universality and profound emotional depth inherent in family narratives, which serve as a common emotional bond connecting global audiences. We firmly believe that in this era, where everyone can be a content creator, every family can and should film their own story. The instinct to create is deeply embedded in the human spirit, and every home is the origin of countless narratives."

Gu Xue, Founder and Director of the FamilyLens International Film Festival, stated: "We hope that people and practitioners around the world who care about family movies can find suitable solutions and gain insights from the Co-Creation Initiatives. We look forward to more and more people exploring the field of 'Home' together through this initiative."

To address the pain points of family filmmaking, SmallRig officially released the SmallRig Family Filmmaking Kit at the opening ceremony. The kit includes a high-quality microphone, fill light, and a portable tripod, specifically designed to achieve "professional function democratization" and "complex feature simplification." During the FamilyLens Workshop, attendees experienced the convenience of the equipment firsthand. Many expressed that the kit truly solves many problems, enabling ordinary families to complete necessary filming without specialized photography knowledge.

Social Impact Screening Program

The 3rd FamilyLens International Film Festival is open to the public from December 6th to 14th. The festival opened with the screening of well-received documentary: K-Family Affairs. In addition to the competition section, the festival features several distinctive sections, including the Reframing Home Movies— An Italian Retrospective, Youth Film Program,  Filmmaker in Focus, and the Social Impact Program. Four major awards, such as the Real-Life Portrait Award and the Artistic Exploration Award, will also be presented.

As a key component of the Co-Creation Initiatives, the SmallRig Image Development Fund partnered with the FamilyLens International Film Festival to curate the "Social Impact Screening Program." This unit focuses on elevating awareness of critical issues within the family unit, advocating for a new reflection: "Starting with Seeing, Concluding with Understanding."

Arum Nam, Director of K-Family Affairs, stated:

"Starting with the stories of your family, your friends, and yourself, I believe this personal narrative can connect directly to the bigger society."

SmallRig believes that truly meaningful social impact storytelling stems from awareness in proximity—achieved by using the lens to penetrate the daily surface and enabling a deep, empathetic "Seeing with Empathy."

The four featured works in this unit are:

  • People of the Ascent
  • Granny's Lost and Found
  • Ruixi at Fourteen
  • No Country For My Maternal Grandma

These films highlight four family issues that require "seeing": the yearning of left-behind children, the mental isolation of Alzheimer's patients, the elderly searching for subjectivity in their drifting lives, and the emotional volatility and struggle of Bipolar Disorder.

Strategic Outlook and Future Expansion

SmallRig will continue to support the Family Filmmaking Co-Creation Initiative's deep development through promotional campaigns and practical workshops focused on family movie scenarios.

The overall goal of SmallRig's Global Co-creation Initiative is to continuously explore and meet the growing, diverse needs of global creators across different vertical domains. SmallRig is committed to persistently expanding the co-creation model into more imaging sectors, collaborating with industry partners to push the boundaries of imaging and grant global creators broader creative freedom.

About SmallRig

Founded in 2013, SmallRig is an innovation-driven global company that designs and manufactures comprehensive support solutions and accessories for all content creation needs. Trusted by over four million creators globally, SmallRig pioneered the User Co-creation Design (UCD) philosophy and the DreamRig Program.

For more information, visit: www.smallrig.com.

** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

SmallRig and FamilyLens Launch Global Family Filmmaking Initiative at 3rd FamilyLens International Film Festival

SmallRig and FamilyLens Launch Global Family Filmmaking Initiative at 3rd FamilyLens International Film Festival

SmallRig and FamilyLens Launch Global Family Filmmaking Initiative at 3rd FamilyLens International Film Festival

SmallRig and FamilyLens Launch Global Family Filmmaking Initiative at 3rd FamilyLens International Film Festival

SmallRig and FamilyLens Launch Global Family Filmmaking Initiative at 3rd FamilyLens International Film Festival

SmallRig and FamilyLens Launch Global Family Filmmaking Initiative at 3rd FamilyLens International Film Festival

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