Oracle Corporation has finally introduced its highly anticipated Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Generative AI service. This launch includes various innovations aimed at empowering large enterprises to harness the latest advancements in generative artificial intelligence technology.
The newly unveiled OCI Generative AI service is a fully managed, cloud-hosted solution that allows businesses to utilize cutting-edge large language models like Meta Platform’s Llama 2 and Cohere Inc.’s proprietary algorithms. By integrating these models with their existing systems, organizations can automate numerous manual business processes currently handled by human employees.
Oracle’s OCI Generative AI service boasts support for over 100 languages, an enhanced cluster management experience for graphics processing units, and flexible fine-tuning options.
Through this service, models can be accessed via API calls for tasks such as text generation, summarization, and semantic similarity. Customers have the capability to securely embed generative AI within their technology stacks while maintaining stringent data security and governance measures.
Introduced in June as an alternative to Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service, OCI Generative AI service leverages Cohere’s AI models and Llama 2, known for their robust capabilities. However, to maximize their utility for businesses, customers can utilize the OCI Generative AI Agents service to enhance and refine these models with their internal data.
Currently available in beta testing, the OCI Generative AI Agents service employs retrieval-augmented generation techniques to fine-tune generative AI models. This enables them to deliver more contextualized and valuable responses by leveraging enterprise search capabilities through OCI Open Search.
While the initial release supports RAG through OCI Open Search, Oracle plans to integrate a broader array of data search and aggregation tools, including Oracle Database 23c with AI Vector Search and MySQL HeatWave with Vector Store. Additionally, prebuilt agent actions will be supported across Oracle’s suite of SaaS applications, such as Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite, Oracle NetSuite, and Oracle Cerner.
Oracle’s OCI Generative AI service is accessible in multiple regions within the Oracle Cloud and can also be utilized on-premises through the OCI Dedicated Region platform. Integration with Oracle’s cloud-based business applications, including ERP, HCM, SCM, and CX apps, is underway. Furthermore, Oracle’s generative AI service will be incorporated into its database portfolio via the Autonomous Database Select AI feature.
In a related development, Oracle is expanding the capabilities of its OCI Data Science platform by introducing a new AI Quick Actions feature in beta next month. This feature will facilitate no-code access to various open-source LLMs, enabling customers to build, train, deploy, and manage models efficiently.
Greg Pavlik, OCI’s senior vice president of AI and data management, emphasized the company’s focus on leveraging generative AI to address real-world business challenges and drive broader enterprise adoption of the technology. By integrating generative AI across all layers of the technology stack and offering a suite of prebuilt services and features, Oracle aims to empower customers to solve business problems more efficiently.
The API-based access of the new service presents a unique opportunity for enterprises, as it is accessible both in the cloud and on-premises. However, the service is currently limited to supporting LLMs from Cohere and Meta’s Llama 2 and is tailored to specific use cases like text generation and summarization.
While Oracle’s generative AI offerings may lag behind competitors like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon in terms of functionality and deployment options, the integration with ERP, HCM, SCM, and CX applications running on OCI could make this offering appealing to many enterprises. Pricing will play a crucial role in its adoption, with AWS currently leading in generative AI services.
Despite these considerations, the launch of this new service positions Oracle as a viable option for enterprises seeking to explore generative AI development, further solidifying its presence in the infrastructure realm by providing cloud-based access to Nvidia Corp.’s powerful GPUs.
