Natural language processing (NLP) is a branch of artificial intelligence that deals with the interaction between humans and machines using natural language. NLP tasks include text generation, text summarization, machine translation, question answering, sentiment analysis, and more. To perform these tasks, NLP systems rely on large language models (LLMs) that can learn from massive amounts of text data and generate coherent and relevant texts.
However, not all LLMs are created equal. Some are more powerful, versatile, and accessible than others. In this article, we will introduce you to Falcon 180B, the largest openly available language model with 180 billion parameters. We will also show you why it is the ultimate language model for NLP tasks.
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What is Falcon 180B?
Falcon 180B is a language model released by the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) of Abu Dhabi in September 2023. It is a scaled-up version of Falcon 40B, which was released in June 2023. Falcon 180B has 180 billion parameters, which means it has 180 billion weights or numbers that determine how the model processes the input and produces the output. To put this in perspective, Falcon 180B is 2.5 times larger than Llama 2, the previous largest openly available language model, and 4 times larger than GPT-3, the most famous language model developed by OpenAI.
Falcon 180B was trained on 3.5 trillion tokens of text data, which is equivalent to about 175 billion words or 875 million pages of text. This is four times more data than Llama 2 and GPT-3 used for training. The text data came from various sources, such as web pages, conversations, technical papers, and even code. The training process took about 7 million GPU hours, which is the longest single-epoch pretraining for an open model.
Falcon 180B uses a transformer architecture, which is a neural network design that allows the model to learn long-range dependencies and complex patterns in the data. It also incorporates some innovations from Falcon 40B, such as multi-query attention, which improves the scalability and efficiency of the model.
How good is Falcon 180B?
Falcon 180B is not only the largest but also the best openly available language model today. It outperforms Llama 2 and GPT-3 on various natural language benchmarks that measure the model’s capabilities across different tasks. For example, this chatbot achieves state-of-the-art results on MMLU. This benchmark evaluates the model’s performance in multiple languages and domains. Falcon 180B also rivals proprietary models like PaLM-2, developed by Google, on benchmarks such as HellaSwag, LAMBADA, WebQuestions, Winogrande, PIQA, ARC, BoolQ, CB, COPA, RTE, WiC, WSC, ReCoRD. These benchmarks test the model’s ability to generate plausible texts, understand complex sentences, answer questions, reason logically, and more.
Falcon 180B also demonstrates impressive generative power for free. Unlike GPT-3 or PaLM-2, which are not openly accessible to the public, It can be downloaded, used, and integrated into applications and end-user products for free (under some restrictive conditions). You can find the model on the Hugging Face Hub (base and chat model) and interact with the model on the Falcon Chat Demo Space. You can also use the model to create your content, such as poems, stories, code, essays, songs, celebrity parodies, and more.
How to use Falcon 180B?
To use Falcon 180B for your own NLP tasks or projects, you will need some hardware and software requirements. First of all, you will need a powerful GPU or TPU to run the model. According to TII researchers, they used up to 4096 GPUs simultaneously to train the model. Therefore, you may need a similar or higher level of computing power to use the model effectively.
Secondly, you will need a software framework that supports Falcon 180B. Currently, the model is available in PyTorch format on the Hugging Face Hub. You can use the Hugging Face Transformers library to load and use the model in your Python code. Alternatively, you can use the Hugging Face Spaces to create and host your web applications that use the model.
Thirdly, you will need a prompt format that tells the model what to do. A prompt is a text input that specifies the task, the instructions, and the desired output format for the model.
The model will then fill in the output section with a generated poem that matches the topic and the style. You can use different types of prompts for different tasks, such as #story, #code, #essay, #song, #parody, and more. You can also customize the prompts by adding more details or constraints.
The model will then generate a song that sounds like Taylor Swift’s lyrics and melody. You can find more examples of prompts and outputs on the Falcon Chat Demo Space.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is Falcon 180B?
It is a language model developed by the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) with a staggering 180 billion parameters, making it the largest openly available language model.
How does Falcon 180B compare to other language models?
It surpasses previous models like Llama 2 and GPT-3, demonstrating state-of-the-art performance across a range of NLP tasks.
Can Falcon 180B be used for free?
Yes, It is openly accessible and can be used for free under specific conditions, making it a valuable resource for various applications.
What kind of tasks can Falcon 180B handle?
It can excel in tasks such as text generation, summarization, translation, question answering, sentiment analysis, and more.
What are the hardware and software requirements to use Falcon 180B?
You’ll need a powerful GPU/TPU, PyTorch support, and a suitable prompt format to effectively use It.
How was Falcon 180B trained?
It was trained on an extensive dataset of 3.5 trillion tokens, including web data, technical papers, code, and more, with a training process spanning 7 million GPU hours.
Conclusion
Falcon 180B is a groundbreaking language model that sets a new state-of-the-art for open models. It is the largest openly available language model with 180 billion parameters. It was trained on a massive 3.5 trillion tokens using TII’s RefinedWeb dataset. It achieves state-of-the-art results across natural language tasks and offers impressive generative power for free. You can use Falcon 180B for your own NLP tasks or projects by following some hardware and software requirements and using a prompt format that tells the model what to do. Falcon 180B is a pioneer in the next generation of generative AI models and a valuable resource for the NLP community.
