How SurrealDB combines AI and multimodal databases for seamless real-time analytics

Hear from Tobie Morgan Hitchcock on SurrealDB's multimodal and AI integration for streamlined database management.

Tobie Morgan Hitchcock, CEO of SurrealDB, sat down with the All Things Open team to share insights on the open source, multimodal database SurrealDB. The platform combines multiple data models—relational, document, graph, and key-value—into one, reducing infrastructure complexity and streamlining development. It allows developers to seamlessly work with different models for complex queries and real-time analytics.

SurrealDB’s flexibility is key, offering SQL-like queries for relational users and nested objects for document users, along with graph functionality. This versatility enables developers to handle diverse use cases with ease. 

The platform also integrates AI and machine learning, enabling developers to incorporate pre-trained models directly into their queries. Tobie explains that users can bring models from popular frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch, using them as custom functions within the database. This opens up possibilities for advanced use cases such as price prediction and automatic document updates.

Another standout feature is SurrealDB’s temporal querying, which helps track and analyze historical data without additional indexing or storage. This is particularly useful for fraud detection and data auditing, ensuring past data states are accessible when needed.

Key takeaways

• Multimodal databases: SurrealDB simplifies development by combining various data models in one platform.
  
• AI integration: The platform allows direct use of machine learning models for advanced queries.
  
• Temporal querying: Built-in temporal querying aids in tracking historical data for use cases like fraud detection.

Conclusion

SurrealDB offers a unified, flexible solution for developers, combining multiple data models, AI integration, and powerful features like temporal querying. This innovation simplifies database management and helps developers build more efficient applications, without having to change their mindset.

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