Hugging Face Gradio 5 Offers AI-Powered App Creation and Enhanced Security

• By John K. Waters
• 10/18/24

Hugging Face has released version 5 of its Gradio open source platform for building machine learning (ML) applications. The update introduces a suite of features focused on expanding access to AI, including a novel AI-powered app creation tool, enhanced web development capabilities, and bolstered security measures.

Hugging Face, which operates a popular repository for open source machine learning projects, now hosts more than 1.3 million AI models, including the generative language models driving advances in AI. It also provides access to 450,000 datasets and other technical resources.

Gradio, acquired by Hugging Face in 2021, has become a critical element of the company's platform, the company said, attracting more than 2 million monthly users and facilitating the creation of over 470,000 applications.

Gradio 5 introduces an experimental "AI Playground," which allows users to design and preview AI-powered applications by simply entering natural language prompts. According to Abubakar Abid, the founder of Gradio, the new feature is akin to other no-code or low-code development environments but goes a step further by generating web-based previews that can run directly in a browser.

"With Gradio 5, developers can build production-ready machine learning web applications that are performant, scalable, beautifully designed, accessible, and follow best web security practices, all in a few lines of Python," Abid said in a blog post.

Gradio's integration with Hugging Face's model hub is a key advantage, the company said. Once an AI model is uploaded to the repository, developers can incorporate it into their applications with minimal effort — now achievable with just a few commands or even spoken instructions. This tight integration dramatically reduces development time and simplifies the process for those building on Hugging Face's ecosystem.

Hugging Face's growth and influence within the AI ecosystem have drawn the interest of major investors, including NVIDIA, which participated in Hugging Face's recent $235 million funding round. Often compared to GitHub but with a specific focus on AI, Hugging Face acts as a hub where developers can access, share, and deploy AI models with ease.

The new release also aims to bridge the gap between machine learning developers and web development. "Many developers are proficient in Python but less familiar with web development tools," Abid explained. "Gradio allows them to build scalable, secure applications that follow best practices in just a few lines of Python."

Gradio 5 emphasizes accessibility and security, two areas increasingly important to enterprises. Hugging Face hired cybersecurity firm Trail of Bits Inc. to conduct an independent audit of the new codebase, ensuring it meets enterprise-grade security standards. The audit addressed previously identified issues and introduced new security enhancements, giving developers greater confidence in deploying their applications.

Hugging Face views the Gradio 5 release as just the beginning, with plans to introduce additional features and capabilities in the coming months. The roadmap includes mobile support, multipage applications, sidebars, navigation elements, and expanded support for image and video modalities.