TL;DR:
- TII launches Falcon 180B, a cutting-edge large language model, solidifying UAE’s AI leadership.
- Falcon 180B follows the success of Falcon 40B, an open-source model that topped the Hugging Face Leaderboard.
- H.E. Faisal Al Bannai emphasizes democratizing AI access for all, rejecting exclusivity.
- Falcon 180B boasts 180 billion parameters and outperforms rivals in various AI benchmarks.
- It closely rivals GPT 4 and Google’s PaLM 2 Large, despite being half their size.
- Licensing based on ‘Falcon 180B TII License,’ following the Apache 2.0 open-source model.
- Dr. Ebtesam Almazrouei highlights Falcon 180B’s potential to advance AI and fuel innovation.
- Already adopted by 12 million developers, Falcon 180B has become a premier model across domains.
- Supports major languages, including English, German, Spanish, and French, with limited capabilities in others.
Main AI News:
The Technology Innovation Institute (TII) based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continues to redefine the boundaries of generative AI with its latest offering, the Falcon 180B. This advanced iteration of their flagship large language model (LLM) not only cements the UAE’s leadership in the field of artificial intelligence but also presents the Falcon 180B as an open-access model catering to both research and commercial applications.
Building on the resounding success of Falcon 40B, an open-source AI model that rapidly climbed to the summit of the Hugging Face Leaderboard for LLMs in May 2023, TII, the research arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), maintains its pioneering stance in the realm of generative AI. Falcon 40B was a trailblazer, being among the first open-source models available to both researchers and commercial users, marking a significant leap forward for the industry.
H.E. Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council, underscores the profound impact of Falcon on the AI landscape, stating, “We envision a future where the transformative potential of AI is accessible to all. We are committed to democratizing access to advanced AI, firmly believing that control over our privacy and AI’s impact on humanity should not rest in the hands of a select few. While we may not have all the answers, our commitment remains unwavering: to collaborate and contribute to the open-source community, ensuring that the benefits of AI are shared by all.”
With a staggering 180 billion parameters and training on an astounding 3.5 trillion tokens, Falcon 180B takes its place at the pinnacle of the Hugging Face Leaderboard for pretrained LLMs. It outperforms formidable competitors, such as Meta’s LLaMA 2, across various benchmarks, including reasoning, coding proficiency, and knowledge tests.
Among the premier closed-source LLMs, Falcon 180B closely trails OpenAI’s latest GPT 4 and rivals the performance of Google’s PaLM 2 Large, the model that powers Bard, despite being only half the size. The licensing framework for Falcon 180B is established under the ‘Falcon 180B TII License,’ based on the Apache 2.0 open-source license.
Dr. Ebtesam Almazrouei, Executive Director and Acting Chief Researcher of the AI Cross-Center Unit at TII, expresses her enthusiasm, stating, “The launch of Falcon 180B exemplifies our unwavering commitment to advancing the frontiers of AI, and we are excited to share its boundless potential with the world. Falcon 180B heralds a new era in generative AI, where the potential for scientific advancement is made accessible through open access, fueling the innovations of tomorrow. As we venture into the frontiers of science and technology, our vision extends far beyond mere innovation; it is about nurturing a profound connection to address global challenges through collaborative breakthroughs.“
With an impressive 12 million developers already adopting and deploying the initial release of Falcon, this significant upgrade is poised to become the ultimate model for diverse domains, ranging from chatbots to code generation and beyond.
Falcon 180B offers compatibility with major languages, including English, German, Spanish, and French, and boasts limited capabilities in Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Romanian, Czech, and Swedish.
Conclusion:
The introduction of Falcon 180B by the Technology Innovation Institute marks a significant leap forward in the AI market. With its exceptional performance and open-access approach, Falcon 180B is set to disrupt the landscape, democratizing access to advanced AI and fostering collaborative innovations across various industries. Its capability to rival larger models from industry giants solidifies its position as a leading force in generative AI, offering new opportunities and possibilities to the market.
