Kochi, Nov 12 (Reporter) Technology major IBM on Tuesday opened a Gen-AI Innovation Centre in the city, with Kerala Industries Minister P. Rajeeve inaugurating the state-of-the-art office at Infopark, which holds the potential of offering over 5000 jobs. “Work from Kerala is the new policy of the government, leveraging the unique advantages the state offers,” the Minister said at a ceremony held at Phase I of the IT complex in suburban Kakkanad. “Kerala prides in its special features such as sustainable transport facilities, clean air and water besides open-minded people. We have created an environment where Malayali employees of global companies can work by staying in their home-state,” he pointed out. Terming IBM's new Gen-AI Innovation Center as highly “promising”, the Minister said the facility currently had 1,500 workers. “We expect the figure to touch 5,000 in the future,” he added, noting that Kochi had been IBM’s fastest-growing campus in the world. Rajeeve said higher-education institutions will go for increased collaboration with the Gen-AI Lab on IBM’s WatsonX platform designed for high-quality customer service experiences. “Students and educational institutions will have a system that facilitates AI experiments at the Innovation Centre,” he revealed. IBM India Vice-President Vishal Chahal said the centre will feature a new system that caters to the company’s international customers. “Mainly, we have three elements: a facility for international customers to make presentations; another for employees to conduct workshops and consultations for/with customers; and a third to groom students and start-ups,” he pointed out. “With this, Kochi will become an important destination in the eyes of international IT customers.” Chahal said Kochi had IBM’s best office system in the world. “The entire development activities of the Watson X platform will be in Kochi,” he said. “Higher education institutions and students can conduct product prototypes and experiments at the Gen-AI lab free of cost.” Minister Rajeev took a full round of the Gen-AI centre. IBM representatives gave a presentation on its software activities. The artwork was done by artists from places like Perumatty (Palakkad), Nilambur (Malappuram) and Eroor (Ernakulam). They were honoured on the occasion...////...