Release notes

The following new features and changes to the libraries are available.

9 Oct 2023

Runtime and model versions updated

We have released a new patch version update of the runtime v1.1.36 to include Watson NLP v4.3, and models to be v1.4.1 with these updates:

  • New syntax transformer model (English-only): syntax_transformer_en_stock.
  • New classification transformer models for tone: classification_transformer_lang_multilingual_slate.153m.distilled.tone and classification_transformer_lang_multilingual_slate.153m.distilled.tone-cpu.
  • Additional enhancements and defect fixes

27 June 2023

Runtime and model versions updated

We have released a new patch version update of the runtime v1.1.32 to include Watson NLP v4.1.1, and models to be v1.3.0 with these updates:

  • The following models have been renamed. Both model names will be supported for this model version 1.3.0 ,but customers are strongly encouraged to migrate to use the new names. Model performance has not been altered and it is strictly a name change only. Old names will be deprecated in next major release, expected later this year.

    Model renamed from Model renamed to
    entity-mentions_transformer-workflow_lang_multi_distilwatbert entity-mentions_transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.153m.distilled
    entity-mentions_transformer-workflow_lang_multi_distilwatbert-cpu entity-mentions_transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.153m.distilled-cpu
    relations_transformer-workflow_lang_multi_distilwatbert relations_transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.153m.distilled
    relations_transformer-workflow_lang_multi_watbert relations_transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.270m

  • New Entity Mention transformer multilingual model: entity-mentions_transformer-workflow_multilingual_slate.270m

  • New Aggregated Sentiment multilingual transformers: sentiment_aggregated-transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.153m.distilled, sentiment_aggregated-transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.153m.distilled-cpu, sentiment_aggregated-transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.270m and sentiment_aggregated-transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.270m-cpu.

  • New Targets Sentiment multilingual transformers: targets-sentiment_transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.153m.distilled, targets-sentiment_transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.153m.distilled-cpu, targets-sentiment_transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.270m, and targets-sentiment_transformer-workflow_lang_multilingual_slate.270m-cpu

  • Runtime latency improvements of syntax models.

  • Fix to avoid crashes during high volume of multithreaded calls to slate models (transformer based algorithms for all task types).

As mentioned, the models listed in the models catalog have been updated to v1.3.0.

05 May 2023

Runtime and model versions updated

We have released a new patch version update of the runtime v1.1.30 to include Watson NLP v3.9.0 with these updates:

  • Dependency update (compared to 3.8.0): Upgrades Tensorflow to 2.12 to resolve some high severity CVEs.

Also, the models listed in the models catalog have been updated to v1.2.1.

12 April 2023

Runtime and model versions updated

We have released a new minor version update of the runtime v1.1.26 to include Watson NLP v3.8.0 with these updates:

  • Entity Mentions distilled WatBERT models for optimized run time performance
  • Multilingual Relations transformer based model
  • Entity Mentions ensemble model with multi-lingual transformer and rules based entity types (20 types)
  • PII Entities model has new types: Taxpayer Identification Number (NationalNumber.USTaxIDNumber.US) and US bank routing number (BankAccountNumber.Routing.US)
  • Defect and security fixes

Also, the models listed in the models catalog have been updated to v1.2.0.

14 March 2023

Runtime and model versions updated

We have released a new patch version update of the runtime v1.1.15 to add improvements to the PII entity extraction models, security and vulnerability fixes, and minor bug fixes. This runtime includes Watson NLP v3.7.0.

Also, the models listed in the models catalog have been updated to v1.1.0.

27 January 2023

Runtime and model versions updated

We have released a new minor version update of the runtime v1.1.0 to add support for the new Generic Ensemble custom classifier. Also, the models listed in the models catalog have been updated to v1.0.9.

17 January 2023

Runtime version updated

Due to a security fix, the runtime has been updated to v1.0.30, and the models listed in the models catalog have been updated to v1.0.8.

11 November 2022

Runtime version updated

Due to a security fix, the runtime has been updated to v1.0.20.

7 November 2022

Runtime and model versions updated

Due to a security fix, the runtime has been updated to v1.0.19, and the models listed in the models catalog have been updated to v1.0.7.

25 October 2022

IBM Watson Natural Language Processing Library for Embed (General Availability Release)

Watson NLP Library for Embed provides access to a comprehensive suite of natural language processing (NLP) tasks through a container runtime and pre-trained models. This GA release provides access to v1.0.18 of the runtime, and v1.0.6 of the models listed in the models catalog.