The Nutanix AI (NAI) platform, now part of Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box, provides a direct method to onboard models from external repositories like Hugging Face. The user interface includes an "Import Model" function that allows a data scientist to provide the specific URL or Model ID for the desired Hugging Face model. This workflow is designed specifically for bringing in custom or unvalidated models for testing and inference, as it directly pulls the model data from the source repository into the NAI environment.

A. Import Model – Using CURL: CURL is a command-line tool for data transfer. While it could be used in a script, it is not a native option within the NAI Dashboard's graphical user interface for importing models.

B. NGC catalog: The NVIDIA NGC catalog provides curated, pre-trained, and validated models. The question specifies an unvalidated model, which would not be available through this curated source.

C. Marketplace app: The Nutanix Marketplace is used for deploying entire applications or blueprints, not for the granular task of importing a single machine learning model into the AI platform.

1. Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box 2.0 Deployment and User Guide: In the "Managing Models" section, under "Adding a Model," the procedure is detailed: "To add a model, you can either select a curated model from the list or import a model from Hugging Face." The subsequent steps show a dialog box with a field explicitly labeled "Hugging Face Model ID or URL," confirming that providing a URL is the correct method. (Reference: Section "Adding a Model", Page 31).