What's new and changed in Watson Machine Learning

Watson Machine Learning updates can include new features and fixes. Releases are listed in reverse chronological order so that the latest release is at the beginning of the topic.

You can see a list of the new features for the platform and all of the services at What's new in IBM Software Hub.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.1.2

A new version of Watson Machine Learning was released in March 2025.

This release includes the following changes:

New features
This release of Watson Machine Learning includes the following features:
New hardware configurations available for GPU inferencing
You can now use the power of GPU-based inferencing and deploy your models on NVIDIA L40S and H100s hardware configurations, in addition to the NVIDIA A100.

For more information, see Managing hardware specifications for deployment.

Updates
The following updates were introduced in this release:
Deploy Python functions with vault integration
Integrate IBM® Software Hub vault with Watson Machine Learning to deploy your applications. This integration enables you to securely store and retrieve sensitive information, such as tokens, by using IBM Software Hub vault. By integrating the vault with your Python function, you can ensure that sensitive data is protected and only accessible to authorized users.

For more information, see Deploying Python functions with vault integration.

Customer-reported issues fixed in this release
For a list of customer-reported issues that were fixed in this release, see the Fix List for IBM Cloud Pak® for Data on the IBM Support website.
Deprecated features
The following features were deprecated in this release:
Deprecation of Federated Learning
Federated Learning is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

For details, see Foundation model lifecycle.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.1.1

A new version of Watson Machine Learning was released in February 2025.

This release includes the following changes:

Customer-reported issues fixed in this release
For a list of customer-reported issues that were fixed in this release, see the Fix List for IBM Cloud Pak for Data on the IBM Support website.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.1.0

A new version of Watson Machine Learning was released in December 2024.

This release includes the following changes:

New features
This release of Watson Machine Learning includes the following features:
Deploy multi-source SPSS Modeler flows
You can now create deployments for SPSS Modeler flows that use multiple input streams to provide data to the model.
Use GPU inferencing and create deep learning experiments with Watson Machine Learning
You no longer need Watson Machine Learning Accelerator to train deep learning experiments or use GPU inferencing. If you have the IBM Software Hub scheduling service and Watson Machine Learning installed, you can now train a neural network using the Deep learning experiment builder in Watson Studio and use the power of GPU inferencing. Train deeper neural networks and explore more complicated hyperparameter spaces.
New runtime available to deploy AI asset on s390x hardware
You can now use Runtime 24.1 to deploy AI assets on s390x hardware.
Updates
The following updates were introduced in this release:
Discontinuation of Runtime 23.1 for deploying AI assets
Model types and software specifications that are deployed with Runtime 23.1 will no longer work. To prevent disruption, update your model types and software specifications to use Runtime 24.1.
Constriction of runtimes for R Scripts and R Shiny applications to deploy AI assets
Model types and software specifications for R Scripts and R Shiny applications that are deployed with Runtime 23.1 are constricted and will be discontinued in the future. To prevent disruption, update your model types and software specifications to use Runtime 24.1.
Customer-reported issues fixed in this release
For a list of customer-reported issues that were fixed in this release, see the Fix List for IBM Cloud Pak for Data on the IBM Support website.