MLflow 2.4.0 release!

[Serena Ruan]

We are happy to announce the availability of MLflow 2.4.0!

MLflow 2.4.0 includes several major features and improvements 

Features:

• [Tracking] Introduce dataset tracking APIs: ``mlflow.data`` and ``mlflow.log_input()`` (#8186, @prithvikannan)
• [Tracking] Add ``mlflow.log_table()`` and ``mlflow.load_table()`` APIs for logging evaluation tables (#8523, #8467, @sunishsheth2009)
• [Tracking] Introduce ``mlflow.get_parent_run()`` fluent API (#8493, @annzhang-db)
• [Tracking / Model Registry] Re-introduce faster artifact downloads on Databricks (#8352, @dbczumar; #8561, @harupy)
• [UI] Add dataset tracking information to MLflow Tracking UI (#8602, @prithvikannan, @hubertzub-db)
• [UI] Introduce Artifact View for comparing inputs, outputs, and metadata across models (#8602, @hubertzub-db)
• [Models] Extend ``mlflow.evaluate()`` to support LLM tasks (#8484, @harupy)
• [Models] Support logging subclasses of ``Chain`` and ``LLMChain`` in ``mlflow.langchain`` flavor (#8453, @liangz1)
• [Models] Add support for LangChain Agents to the ``mlflow.langchain`` flavor (#8297, @sunishsheth2009)
• [Models] Add a ``mlflow.sentence_transformers`` flavor for SentenceTransformers (#8479, @BenWilson2; #8547, @Loquats)
• [Models] Add support for multi-GPU inference and efficient weight loading for ``mlflow.transformers`` flavor (#8448, @ankit-db)
• [Models] Support the ``max_shard_size`` parameter in the ``mlflow.transformers`` flavor (#8567, @wenfeiy-db)
• [Models] Add support for audio transcription pipelines in the ``mlflow.transformers`` flavor (#8464, @BenWilson2)
• [Models] Add support for audio classification to ``mlflow.transformers`` flavor (#8492, @BenWilson2)
• [Models] Add support for URI inputs in audio models logged with the ``mlflow.transformers`` flavor (#8495, @BenWilson2)
• [Models] Add support for returning classifier scores in ``mlflow.transformers`` pyfunc outputs (#8512, @BenWilson2)
• [Models] Support optional inputs in model signatures (#8438, @Apurva Koti)
• [Models] Introduce an ``mlflow.models.set_signature()`` API to set the signature of a logged model (#8476, @jerrylian-db)
• [Models] Persist ONNX Runtime InferenceSession options when logging a model with ``mlflow.onnx.log_model()`` (#8433, @leqiao-1)

Bug fixes: 

• [Tracking] Terminate Spark callback server when Spark Autologging is disabled or Spark Session is shut down (#8508, @WeichenXu123)
• [Tracking] Fix compatibility of ``mlflow server`` with ``Flask<2.0`` (#8463, @kevingreer)
• [Models] Convert ``mlflow.transformers`` pyfunc scalar string output to list of strings during batch inference (#8546, @BenWilson2)
• [Models] Fix a bug causing outdated pyenv versions to be installed by ``mlflow models build-docker`` (#8488, @Hellzed)
• [Model Registry] Remove aliases from storage when a Model Version is deleted (#8459, @arpitjasa-db)

Documentation updates: 

• [Docs] Publish a new MLOps Quickstart for model selection and deployment (#8462, @lobrien)
• [Docs] Add MLflavors library to Community Model Flavors documentation (#8420, @benjaminbluhm)
• [Docs] Add documentation for Registered Model Aliases (#8445, @arpitjasa-db)
• [Docs] Fix errors in documented ``mlflow models`` CLI command examples (#8480, @vijethmoudgalya)

For a comprehensive list of changes, see the release change log, and check out the latest documentation on mlflow.org.