As IBM/Red Hat have foisted Wayland display server upon Linux while killing X.Org which it replaces, this is really about making it easier to hook in an AI agent into Linux systems. The security argument that Wayland is more secure only applies to less proficient programmers, as the extra functionality of X11 can be coded in a secure manner. Luckily we have the new XLibre project that is implementing a lot of updates that have been held back by X.Org under Red Hat control. So with that backdrop, this acquisition is interesting.
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Red-Hat-Another-AI-Company
By Michael Larabel in Red Hat
Last year Red Hat acquired Neural Magic as part of their AI acquisitions and to bolster the open-source AI ecosystem. Today they announced another AI acquisition.
Red Hat announced today they have acquired Chatterbox Labs, a private company that began in 2011 and is focused on AI model testing and generative AI guardrails. Chatterbox Labs’ AIMI platform provides quantitative AI risk metrics and other features.
As for Red Hat’s acquisition of Chatterbox Labs and fitting into their ecosystem, they explain:
“As enterprises move AI from experimentation to production, the ability to monitor models for bias, toxicity, and vulnerabilities is critical. Guardrails and safety testing have become “table stakes” for modern MLOps and LLMOps platforms.
This acquisition directly addresses the growing need for “security for AI.” By integrating Chatterbox Labs technology, Red Hat aims to provide a comprehensive enterprise open source AI platform that enables customers to run production workloads with confidence.”
They are aiming for Chatterbox Labs’ technology to complement the recent Red Hat AI 3. Red Hat does plan to open-source the AI tech from Chatterbox Labs over time:
“Red Hat has a long history of acquiring proprietary technology and open sourcing it to drive innovation and community adoption. We plan to follow our standard open source development model with Chatterbox Labs’ technology, making these critical safety tools accessible to the broader community over time.”
More details for those interested in this Red Hat AI acquisition via the Red Hat announcement.