The Gilbane Advisor

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Altair partners with Databricks

April 16, 2025 /

Altair, a global provider in computational intelligence, has partnered with Databricks, a data and AI company, to provide joint customers with capabilities for data unification, graph-powered intelligence, and enterprise-grade artificial intelligence (AI).

Customers can use Altair RapidMiner to access, prepare, and analyze data in Databricks without data duplication. The platform’s full-stack AI capabilities—from low-code AutoML to MLOps, agent frameworks, and high-speed visualization, allow organizations to prototype, deploy, and scale AI applications using data stored in Databricks.

A key differentiator is Altair RapidMiner’s massively parallel processing (MPP) knowledge graph technology, purpose-built to support knowledge graph creation, data fabrics, and ontology modeling at enterprise scale. By integrating with Databricks, customers can use the Altair RapidMiner knowledge graph engine to connect, contextualize, and activate all types of data—structured, unstructured, and streaming. These graph-powered fabrics form the foundation for a new generation of intelligent systems, enabling generative AI models and autonomous agents to navigate the full complexity of an organization’s digital operations.

Altair RapidMiner also offers native support for SAS language execution, allowing customers to preserve and extend the value of their existing analytics investments while modernizing their workflows.

https://altair.com/altair-rapidminer ■ https://www.databricks.com

Introducing Aura-2: Enterprise-grade text-to-speech

April 15, 2025 /

Deepgram, a voice AI platform for enterprise use cases, announced Aura‑2, its next-generation text-to-speech (TTS) model purpose-built for real-time voice applications in mission-critical business environments. Engineered for clarity, consistency, low-latency performance, and deployable via cloud or on-premises APIs, Aura‑2 enables developers to build scalable, human-like voice experiences for automated interactions across the enterprise, including customer support, virtual agents, and AI-powered assistants. Aura-2 is built on Deepgram Enterprise Runtime—the infrastructure that powers the company’s speech-to-text (STT) and speech-to-speech (STS) capabilities, providing enterprises with the control, adaptability, and performance required to deploy and scale production-grade voice AI.

A significant gap exists between entertainment-focused models and the operational demands of enterprise-grade voice systems. Entertainment-focused TTS platforms are trained on and optimized for storytelling, character voices, and emotionally expressive delivery. Enterprise applications require more than natural-sounding voices, they demand domain-specific pronunciation, a professional tone, consistent contextual handling, and the ability to perform reliably, cost-effectively, and securely, often in environments that require full deployment control.

Aura-2 is powered by Deepgram Enterprise Runtime (DER)—a custom-built infrastructure layer that runs all of Deepgram’s speech models. Designed specifically for enterprise-grade performance, DER orchestrates voice AI in real time with the speed, reliability, and adaptability required for production-scale deployments.

Introducing Aura-2: Enterprise-Grade Text-to-Speech

InfluxData releases InfluxDB 3 Core and InfluxDB 3 Enterprise

April 15, 2025 /

InfluxData, a time series database, announced the general availability of InfluxDB 3 Core and InfluxDB 3 Enterprise. Built for rapid development and large-scale production, Core and Enterprise provide a high-performance, easily scalable database for managing time series data. InfluxDB 3 Core is an open source, high-speed, recent-data engine for real-time applications. InfluxDB 3 Enterprise adds high availability, enhanced security, and scalability for production environments. Both bring data transformation, enrichment, and alerting directly into the database with a built-in Python Processing Engine, elevating InfluxDB to an active intelligence engine for real-time data.

InfluxDB 3 Core is open source under the permissive MIT/Apache 2 license. InfluxDB 3 Enterprise extends Core’s capabilities with enterprise-grade features for production workloads, including multi-region durability, read replicas, automatic failover, and enhanced security. Both products run in a lightweight, single-node setup for fast, easy deployment.

Powered by the new InfluxDB 3 engine written in Rust and built with Apache Arrow, DataFusion, Parquet, and Flight, Core and Enterprise deliver performance gains and architectural flexibility compared to previous open source versions of InfluxDB.

InfluxDB 3 Core is now available as a free and open source download. InfluxDB 3 Enterprise is available for production deployments with flexible licensing options.

https://www.influxdata.com/blog/influxdata-announces-influxdb-3-OSS-GA

Gilbane Advisor 4-9-25 — LLM biology, AI Index

April 9, 2025 /

This week we feature articles from Jack Lindsey, et al, and Eliza Strickland.

Additional reading comes from Omer Goldman & Uri Shaham, Steven Sinofsky, Volodymyr Pavlyshyn, and Adam Bignell.

News comes from MindsDB, Access Innovations, Perplexity & firmly.ai, and Contentful.

Our next issue arrives April 23.

All previous issues are available at https://gilbane.com/gilbane-advisor-index

Opinion / Analysis

On the biology of a large language model

Jack Lindsey and his colleagues at Anthropic…
“The black-box nature of models is increasingly unsatisfactory as they advance in intelligence and are deployed in a growing number of applications. Our goal is to reverse engineer how these models work on the inside, so we may better understand them and assess their fitness for purpose.”

Anthropic’s new research into how LLMs “think” is fascinating. Don’t be put off by the length of their paper — you can learn a lot by reading some of the introductory material, the discussion at the end, and then surfing the case studies and topics in-between. (1 hr 49 min)

https://transformer-circuits.pub/2025/attribution-graphs/biology.html

12 graphs that explain the state of AI in 2025

The always useful and free AI Index from Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) is available. The 455 page 2025 issue is “stuffed with graphs and data on the topics of R&D, technical performance, responsible AI, economic impacts, science and medicine, policy, education, and public opinion.” IEEE Spectrum’s Eliza Strickland provides highlights and links to the full report. (7 min)

https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-index-2025

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Content technology news

MindsDB brings federated data access to Model Context Protocol

MindsDB & MCP enables AI applications and agents to run federated queries over data stored in different databases and applications as if they were a single database.
https://mindsdb.com

Access Innovations releases Data Harmony 3.17

The new version includes knowledge maps that illustrate the linkages (with color-coded legends) between categories and terms in a taxonomy.
https://www.accessinn.com/data-harmony-products/

Perplexity integrates firmly.ai ecommerce technology

By embedding firmly.ai’s commerce platform, Perplexity users can now complete their entire shopping journey, from product discovery to secure transaction, without leaving the platform.
https://www.firmly.ai ■ https://www.perplexity.ai

Contentful launches new CMS capabilities and Shopify partnership

New AI and personalization capabilities for technical teams build on the company’s CMS, and Contentful Studio, and a low-code product for marketing teams.
https://www.contentful.com/newsroom/contentful-reveals-next-phase-of-growth-with-modern-digital-experience

All content technology news

The Gilbane Advisor is authored by Frank Gilbane and is ad-free, cost-free, and curated for content, computing, data, web, and digital experience technology and information professionals. We publish recommended articles and content technology news most Wednesdays. We do not sell or share personal data.

Subscribe | View online | Editorial policy | Privacy policy | Contact

MindsDB brings federated data access to Model Context Protocol

April 3, 2025 /

MindsDB announced comprehensive support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) across both its open source and enterprise platforms. This integration positions MindsDB as a unified AI data hub that standardizes and optimizes how AI models access enterprise data, simplifying artificial intelligence deployment in complex data environments.

The Model Context Protocol, an emerging open standard developed by Anthropic, creates a universal way for AI applications to connect with data sources and tools. By implementing MCP, MindsDB enables AI applications and agents to run federated queries over data stored in different databases and business applications as if they were a single database. MindsDB’s implementation extends beyond basic MCP compatibility to:

  • Provide one-step querying across multiple sources with comprehensive audit capabilities
  • Integrate with existing enforcement mechanisms to maintain data governance
  • Enable complex workflows including multi-source joins, automated data transformations, and natural language query conversion
  • Use native integrations when MCP support is insufficient and optimizes queries for efficient execution at the data source

MCP support is available in both MindsDB’s open source and enterprise editions. The open source version provides core MCP functionality for developers and small teams, while the enterprise edition adds advanced security, governance features, and premium support for organizational deployments.

https://mindsdb.com

Gilbane Advisor 4-2-25 — AGI debate, Cybernetic teammate

April 2, 2025 /

This week we feature articles from Gary Marcus, and Ethan Mollick.

Additional reading comes from Eve Weinberg, Amber Case, Iulia Brezeanu, and Greg Kamradt.

News comes from Adobe, Databricks & Anthroic, Bynder, and Algolia.

Our next issue arrives April 9.

All previous issues are available at https://gilbane.com/gilbane-advisor-index

Opinion / Analysis

Ezra Klein’s new take on AGI – and why I think it’s probably wrong

Gary Marcus is right…
“In a new episode of his podcast with Ben Buchanan former special adviser for artificial intelligence under Biden, entitled, The Government knows A.G.I. is coming, The New York Times’ usually fabulous Ezra Klein declares with too much certainty that AGI is pretty much imminent, and urges you to get with the program.” (11 min)

https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/ezra-kleins-new-take-on-agi-and-why

The Cybernetic teammate

Having an AI on your team can increase performance, provide expertise, and improve your experience

Ethan Mollick…
“So, what happens when AI acts as a teammate? This past summer we conducted a pre-registered, randomized controlled trial of 776 professionals at Procter and Gamble, the consumer goods giant, to find out.” (5 min)

https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/the-cybernetic-teammate

More Reading

All Gilbane Advisor issues

Content technology news

Adobe launches Adobe Experience Platform Agent Orchestrator

AEP enables businesses to build, manage and orchestrate AI agents from Adobe and third-party ecosystems. Adobe also announced, a suite of agents.
https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/03/adobe-launches-adobe-experience-platform-agent-orchestrator-for-businesses

Algolia launches AI-powered Collections

Collections reduce choice overload, guide users through intuitive navigation, improve search relevance, and help users find products faster.
https://www.algolia.com/products/ai-browse

Databricks brings Anthropic’s Claude models to platform

The strategic, five-year partnership offers Anthropic’s models and services natively through the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.
https://www.databricks.com/company/newsroom/press-releases/databricks-and-anthropic-sign-landmark-deal-bring-claude-models

Bynder announces AI Agents

The AI agents execute business-critical tasks such as content enrichment, discovery, transformation, and governance for strategic DAM deployments.
https://labs.bynder.com/features/ai-agents

All content technology news

The Gilbane Advisor is authored by Frank Gilbane and is ad-free, cost-free, and curated for content, computing, data, web, and digital experience technology and information professionals. We publish recommended articles and content technology news most Wednesdays. We do not sell or share personal data.

Subscribe | View online | Editorial policy | Privacy policy | Contact

Contentful launches new CMS capabilities and Shopify partnership

March 31, 2025 /

Contentful launched new features and partnerships that, with Contentful’s content management system (CMS) capabilities, deliver a modern solution for creating digital experiences. Anchored in core content operations, enhanced by AI, and featuring data-driven AI-enabled personalization at the core of the digital experience platform (DXP).

Contentful’s new AI and personalization capabilities build on the company’s composable CMS, a core platform tailored to technical users, and Contentful Studio, a low-code digital experience-building product for marketing teams.

AI Actions is Contentful’s framework for AI-powered content operations, enabling marketers to embed generative AI models into any stage of the content lifecycle from creation to adaptation to publishing. AI Actions remove the friction of repetitive marketing tasks, like translations and localization for global audiences, one-click SEO, and alt-text generation.

Contentful Personalization will live directly within the Contentful web app. Customers can easily find and manage all their audiences, experiments, and personalized experiences in one unified workspace. By centralizing everything in a single command center, Contentful streamlines personalization, making it faster and more efficient for the marketing team to optimize customer experiences.

Contentful and Shopify also announced a new strategic partnership designed to connect and synchronize content and commerce systems.

https://www.contentful.com/newsroom/contentful-reveals-next-phase-of-growth-with-modern-digital-experience

Access Innovations releases Data Harmony 3.17

March 31, 2025 /

Access Innovations, Inc. released the Version 3.17 update for its Data Harmony software suite. The newest version of the software includes knowledge maps that illustrate the linkages between categories and terms in a taxonomy. The knowledge maps have color-coded legends that tie to main categories of terms within each taxonomy to make them easier to decipher at a glance.

Other improvements in Data Harmony Version 3.17 include a Google Gemini integration so that taxonomies can link to a GPT model for a generative AI conversational search. Also, a new online dictionary link allows an individual who is building a custom taxonomy to look up terms without having to leave the platform in which they are working.

The software focuses on improving the quality of LLMs (large language models). Once someone queries a GPT or generative predictive text system, that system queries the LLM. The system compiles words gathered from the LLM according to the algorithms in the GPT, so the results from AI are only as good as the quality of the LLM data. By focusing on that data, Access helps AI perform better with more accuracy and efficiency. The software categorizes knowledge assets to improve search precision.

https://www.accessinn.com/data-harmony-products/

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